Kansas Abortion Law Called Unconstitutional

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (CN) - A new Kansas law forces abortion providers to provide "irrelevant and misleading" information to women seeking an abortion, Planned Parenthood claims in Federal Court.

Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and a physician sued the Kansas attorney general, the Johnson County district attorney and two other top state officials.

Planned Parenthood challenges two provisions of Kansas House Bill 2253, scheduled to take effect on July 1.

"One provision compels plaintiff Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, Inc. ("CHPPKM") to place on the homepage of its public website both a hyperlink to a government website that contains the government's viewpoint on abortion, and a scripted message of endorsement of the content on the government's website, even where CHPPKM disagrees with the message, thereby violating the First Amendment rights of CHPPKM," the complaint states.

"If CHPPKM fails to comply with this command, it cannot legally provide abortions. Thus, this provision also violates the Fourteenth Amendment rights of plaintiffs' patients.

"The Act also compels a physician who is to perform an abortion to provide every patient seeking an abortion with information intended to convey the misleading suggestion that a fetus can feel pain after reaching a certain gestational age. Yet, all or virtually all of the women who have abortions at CHPPKM do not have pregnancies that reach that gestational age. Thus, regardless of the misleading nature of the information, it is also entirely irrelevant to them. Compelling this speech violates the First Amendment rights of plaintiff Dr. Moore, and the Fourteenth Amendment rights of his abortion patients."

Planned Parenthood wants enforcement of the law enjoined as unconstitutional.

It is represented by Arthur A. Benson II of Arthur A. Benson of Kansas City, Mo.

Named as defendants are Kimberly Templeton MD, president of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts; Robert Moser MD, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment; Derek Schmidt, Kansas attorney general; and Stephen M. Howe, district attorney for Johnson County, Kan.

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