Kansas must restore Planned Parenthood funds

WICHITA, Kan., Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Kansas must restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood while the state appeals a ruling that had temporarily restored funding, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten also ruled Tuesday funding should be provided quarterly, not monthly, as the state had requested, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported.

Planned Parenthood had threatened to close its Hays, Kan., clinic Friday unless it found out before then federal family-planning funding would be restored.

Planned Parenthood also said without the funding, it would have to eliminate sliding-scale fees based on patients' incomes at its Wichita clinic.

"Residents of Wichita and Hays, Kan., will be best assured of continued family planning services by maintaining the status quo," Marten wrote.

On Aug. 1, Marten temporarily barred enforcement of a Kansas law that would strip Planned Parenthood of about $330,000 in federal family-planning money for fiscal year 2011-12 and instead sent the money mainly to public health departments.

The state has argued Planned Parenthood never proved the loss of funding would reduce services at its clinics.

State lawyers, the Star reported, said the funding accounts for just 5.5 percent of Planned Parenthood's revenue and said other operations, including abortions, would cover any funding gap at the Wichita and Hays clinics.