A clinic in Dodge City wants to join a Planned Parenthood lawsuit challenging the way Kansas allocates federal family planning funds. The money helps subsidize services such as birth control and pap smears to low-income Kansans. State law now mandates that funds first be distributed to health departments and hospitals. Doug Bonney is a lead lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union and represents the Dodge City family planning clinic. He says it has long depended on federal funds to serve hundreds of low-income resident in that region of the state, and that the clinic cannot continue without that financial support.
The Kansas funding distribution law only affects the Dodge City clinic and a Planned Parenthood operation in Wichita and Hays. Supporters of the new law say health agencies that DON'T support abortion services should be the first in line to receive family planning funds. None of the affected clinics offer abortions. A judge has ordered the state to resume funding Planned Parenthood while the case is in court.