Judge: Kansas Can't Cut Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Money

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY JOHN HANNA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jul 5, 5:29 PM EDT


TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the organization's St. Louis regional affiliate.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment planned to cut off funding by Thursday for health services offered at Planned Parenthood facilities, such as exams and cancer screenings, for poor patients receiving health coverage through the state's Medicaid program. Medicaid funds do not cover abortions.

Federal courts have blocked attempts by other states to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PLANNED_PARENTHOOD_KANSAS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-07-05-17-26-00

[forest444]

1. And Governor Browncrack can go flog himself.

It is the Opus Dei way, you know.

[Judi Lynn]

14. He may be one of the best floggers the right-wing has.

[center]

Go, Sam, go. [/center]

[jpak]

2. FU Brownback - and the GOP

idiots

yup

[greymattermom]

3. Kansas vote for this

and get what they voted for. All reasonable folks are leaving as fast as they can.

[tblue37]

15. Some of us cannot leave. Besides, there is evidence that the vote was rigged. Brownback and

his minions are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the K-State mathematics prof who found the statistical anomalies from getting her hands on the vote data.

[surrealAmerican]

4. Does this have broader implications as to the state's role in administering ...

... Medicaid funds?

Maybe it would be better to just cut the states out of this role. There is still too much room for abuse.

[dbackjon]

5. Yup - time to fully federalize Healthcare.

[Stonepounder]

6. What I am afraid of is that sooner, rather than later,

The Kansas Legislative and Executive branches will become so convinced that they are the chosen that they will defy the Judiciary. Then what happens?

[SCantiGOP]

7. They're already doing that

There is a thread from earlier. They have a bill to make it easier to impeach and overrule their State Supreme Court.

[Stonepounder]

9. Here is my fear.

The legislature passes the bill. The court rules it unconstitutional and therefore mull. The legislature goes ahead and impeaches the justices that voted to rule the bill unconstitutional.

Now we have a situation where the legislature has used a bill that has been ruled to be unconstitutional to vote impeachment, when the basis of the impeachment has previously been ruled illegal.

Do the justices go quietly, even though their firing was illegal? Or do they refuse to go on the basis that the behavior that was used to vote the impeachment was null? Either way you have a complete breakdown of the constitution of the state.

Now, do the feds step in? Or has one branch of government nullified another branch of government? No matter what happens, we are screwed.

[SCantiGOP]

11. I think the right to impeach is pretty much unrestricted

But, as others have pointed out, they can't affect the federal courts, where most of these issues would be settled.
State and Congressional efforts have been launched before to allow the Legislature/Congress to overrule Court decisions, but everyone knows that would never stand.

[rexcat]

8. Good thing this was a Federal...

judge and not a state elected judge or however they place judges in Kansas. The idiots in the Kansas legislature can't impeach a Federal judge!

[Stonepounder]

10. They are just about crazy enough to decide to pass a bill overruling the Federal Judge. n/t

[DirkGently]

12. KNR n/t.

[sarcasmo]

13. Kansas is a mess.

[tblue37]

16. True dat. nt