Kansas Defends Anti-Abortion Laws By Paying Private Law Firms Nearly $1M
In response to requests from the Associated Press, Kansas’ attorney general’s office disclosed that it has paid more than $913,000 to private law firms charged with helping the state defend its abortion restrictions. Since Governor Sam Brownback took office in Jan. 2011, Kansas has enacted abortion regulations, including prohibitions on tax breaks for providers, though it is important to note the state has not banned abortions in the earliest weeks of pregnancies.
Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, told the Associated Press that the spending shows the legislature is more interested in "political posturing" on abortion than good financial stewardship. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri offers abortion and other healthcare services at a clinic in a Kansas City suburb.
Pro-life representatives counter that abortion providers are to blame for the expenses because, after losing the support of voters, they pursued their financial interests in the courts.
“To try to blame us for the money involved in defending the lawsuits is ridiculous,” Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, told the Associated Press. Kansans for Life describes itself as "a statewide non-profit educational organization also engaged in social action and legislative lobbying."
Planned Parenthood describes itself as the largest private health care system in the U.S.; on its website, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri notes that 12 percent of annual income for 2009 was donated by individuals, foundations, and corporations. “Due to political opposition in Missouri and Kansas, state funding to support PPKM family planning declines yearly… We are continuing our campaign to protect this funding,” the organization notes on its website. In fact, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri is part of a federal lawsuit that is attempting to knock down a 2011 Kansas law which prevents the state from distributing federal family planning dollars to the organization to provide non-abortion services. That case has been handled by Foulston Siefkin, considered to be the state's largest law firm.
According to data compiled by the Institute for Legal Reform, it is not uncommon for states’ attorney general offices to pay for outside counsel, even in cases of enforcement actions — where a private firm acts in the attorney general’s stead.
“These retention deals initially came into vogue in the context of the litigation mounted by many states against tobacco companies, but have now spread to numerous other arenas, including general product liability, financial services, and environmental lawsuits,” note the authors of report on the matter of state payment to outside counsel. The Institute for Legal Reform describes itself as being founded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1998 to address the country's litigation explosion.