By Kathy Ostrowski, Legislative Director, Kansans for Life

Pro-Life Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback
In an upbeat state-of-the-state address Tuesday evening, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said, “Ensuring the health and safety of Kansans means protecting all Kansans at every stage of life. We must keep working to protect our most innocent Kansans, the unborn.”
Brownback continued,
We have become the shining city on the hill and the champions for life. … Kansas was founded on the principal that every life has dignity, that every life has beauty, that every life has value. Every year since I became Governor we have enacted pro-life legislation. We have come a long way, but there is still work to be done. In 2011, I signed legislation stopping most taxpayer funding from going to Planned Parenthood. The time has come to finish the job. Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby body parts is antithetical to our belief in human dignity.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD DEFUNDING
What the mainstream media took note of was the Governor’s action on PPFA:
Today, I am directing [Kansas Department of Health & Environment] Secretary Susan Mosier to ensure that not a single dollar of taxpayer money goes to Planned Parenthood through our Medicaid program. I welcome legislation that would enshrine this directive in state law.”
In the Associated Press coverage, the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Kansas Mid-Missouri said that $61,000 was at stake and that they intend to fight for it. Medicaid provision for low-income health is jointly subsidized by federal and state monies.
Under Gov. Brownback, Kansas has already insured that $370,000 in annual Title X reproductive health money for low-income patients is prioritized to full-service public clinics and hospitals. Planned Parenthood–failing to meet those qualifications– challenged this annually renewed prioritization in court and lost at the federal appellate level.
The AP also quoted Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, as promising to defend withholding this funding from Planned Parenthood.