Senate committee approves diverting family planning funds

TOPEKA, Kan. – A Kansas Senate committee has voted to permanently divert federal funding from private family planning clinics such as abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would make permanent a provision that distributes funding for Title X, a federally financed family planning program. The provision gives funding priority to public health departments and clinics ahead of private family planning clinics.

Legislators have been including the policy in annual budgets since 2011, but each time it is effective only for a single year. The bill would keep the measure in place indefinitely.

Title X funding, which cannot be used for abortions, mainly provides family planning services such as cancer screenings, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and birth control to low-income people.

Elise Higgins, the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, told the Associated Press that Planned Parenthood has lost about $370,000 annually in Title X money.

Family planning clinics in Ford and Ellis Counties have closed their doors because of loss of funding. As a result of closures in Ellis County, patients in the area now have to drive up to 50 minutes away to reach the closest clinic that provides Title X funding, Higgins said.

Planned Parenthood challenged the provision in federal court and ultimately lost in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver in 2014.

“Lawmakers are punishing women for the sake of a political vendetta when they should be expanding access to health care that keeps people healthy and prevents abortion and unintended pregnancy,” Higgins said.

But Kathy Ostrowski, the legislative director of Kansas for Life and a supporter of the measure, said that the bill would benefit disadvantaged communities.

“When you’re allocating comprehensive health care for the low-income population you should not be depriving them of full-service care,” Ostrowski said, adding that a physician could provide a well-women exam and an ear check in the same visit.

“We do not need to have niche providers for reproductive care.”