KANSAS CITY — Planned Parenthood attorneys are asking a federal judge to prevent Kansas from cutting off Medicaid funding for the organization.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson was having a hearing Tuesday in a lawsuit filed last month by two Planned Parenthood affiliates against the state health department’s top administrator.
The agency plans to cut off funding July 7.
Robinson will decide whether to block the department’s action while the lawsuit proceeds. Federal courts have blocked attempts to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in other states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.
Planned Parenthood attorneys argue Kansas is acting based on its “animus” toward the organization.
The state’s lawyers argue that it would premature for Robinson to act because the health department hasn’t formally cut off Medicaid funding.
