Back in April, the state legislature passed a law directing the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to author new facility standards for abortion clinics, which the staunchly anti-abortion GOP governor, Sam Brownback*, signed into law on May 16. The law also requires the health department to issue new licenses each year, and it grants additional authority to health department inspectors to conduct unannounced inspections, and to fine or shut down clinics.
The department wasted no time in drafting the new rules, issuing the final version on June 17 and informing clinics that they would have to comply with the rules by July 1, as the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, told the AP that inspectors were expected at their clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, on Wednesday. There are only three clinics left in the state: Planned Parenthood's, a clinic in Overland Park, and the Aid for Women clinic in Kansas City.
The new requirements require facilities to add extra bathrooms, drastically expand waiting and recovery areas, and even add larger janitor's closets, as one clinic employee told me—changes that clinics will have a heck of a time pulling off by the deadline. Under the new rule, clinics must also aquire state certification to admit patients, a process that takes 90 to 120 days, the staffer explained. Which makes it impossible for clinics to comply. And clinics that don't comply with the rules will face fines or possible closure.
Such legislation is dubbed 'Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers,' or TRAP. Ain't that perfect?
Time for this again.
Well, at least a few jobs might be created in renovating these clinics. . .
*Y'all remember Sam 'Rapists Have Rights Too' Brownback, doncha? Back in 2007, then Senator and presidential hopeful said:
“Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that’s been raped?” Brownback said, according to an AP report.
2 comments:
This doesn't sort well with the trumpeted 'Unseen Hand'. These clinics are commercially viable. Maybe we'll see a tilt between 'activist judges' and 'activist legislators'.
Where the heck are the voters?
Pseudz: Where the heck, indeed.
Post a Comment