WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A federal judge has again barred Kansas from stripping federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood clinics in Wichita and Hays as well as an unaffiliated clinic in Dodge City.
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten on Friday extended his preliminary injunction first issued a year ago. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the Dodge city Family Planning Clinic sought the extension after the Legislature this year re-enacted restrictions on family planning funding.
The dispute stems from a Kansas law requiring the state to first allocate some federal family planning money to public health departments and hospitals, which leaves no funds for specialty clinics.
The move expedites the dispute so the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will have the 2011 and 2012 statutes before it when it rules.