I am not of the opinion that it is pro-choice to provide regular, no-questions-asked, large sums of taxpayer money to “non-profit” groups like Planned Parenthood, when these groups have a significant conflict of interest (e.g., profit) with regard to whether or not abortions are performed.

Allow me first to discuss Kansas’ globally-recognized record on abortion:

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Kansas is the only state — indeed, the only location that I’m aware of in the entire democratic, Western world — that allows for elective, late-term abortions.

Update:  I’m going to briefly expound on the US-to-world comparison, as a result of a fair challenge made in the comments section, with regard to Canadian laws; indeed, after a quick search, one learns that according to Pew Forum, “Since 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that existing abortion restrictions were unconstitutional, abortion has been legal for any reason at any stage of pregnancy.”  I do not claim to be a final authority on international abortion laws.  However, I did help attempt for two years in the Kansas legislature to enforce our state’s elective late-term abortion laws, and it is my strong understanding that, functionally, Kansas is one of the few places world-wide where such procedures are easily and openly available.

Here is a link to the main HTML page for the “World Abortion Laws 2008 Fact Sheet” provided by the Center for Reproductive Rights.  According to the PDF that is made available detailing 2008 laws, 56 countries from Albania to Vietnam containing 39% of the world’s population are under the category of “least restrictive” (this includes the US), and note that even in this category, the list assumes prohibition after “12 weeks unless otherwise indicated.”  The fine print for Canada states “Law does not indicate gestational limit; regulatory mechanisms vary.”

The bottom line:  regardless of nationality, there are few people who, even for a good profit, will perform abortions on a viable fetus.  Therefore, in the nations that legally allow elective abortions in the third trimester, it should not surprise us if providers of this “service” are difficult to obtain; this might be the situation in Canada.

We do have a 11-year-old law that prohibits late-term abortions when there is not a permanent threat to the mother’s health.  Nearly every honest attorney is convinced that this language is clear enough with regard to the intent, but due to a combination of reasons, the law has never been enforced:

• The mental health of the mother has been accepted among the reasons for a “permanent health condition.”  This isn’t the intent of the law, and where the reasons for past late-term abortions are known, this is the reason EVERY time.  I will point out will state also that according to Harvard-educated Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Dr. Paul McHugh, who was appointed under Bush to the President’s Council on Bioethics, there is actually a decreased risk during pregnancy with regard to suicide, due in large part to evoluationary reasons.  I highly recommend this 8-minute video interview of Dr. McHugh talking about Kansas and abortion.
• Obstruction from the pro-abortion state Senate Republican leadership, under the last decade’s leaders Dick Bond, Steve Morris, and John Vratil;
• A refusal by governors to appoint leadership to the state health department KDHE that will enforce the law (this is under both Republican Governor Bill Graves and Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius)
• Kathleen Sebelius going out of her way to line-item-veto legislation that would have required KDHE to merely ask abortion providers the actual reason for the late-term abortion.  After vetoing the legislation, Sebelius lied by citing “privacy concerns” — no identifiable information was required.  Since the 1998 law was enacted, KDHE leaders have been satisifed with abortionists answering in the following evasive, uninformative mannger, “There is a permanent threat to the mother’s health…”;
• A refusal to enforce the law by Kansas Supreme Court judges, who are picked by a selection committee that, unlike any other state, is majority-controlled by unaccountable Kansans who merely have a law degree.  Just for fun, in a legislative committee, I asked the proponents of the status quo whether in-state lawyers are required to be United States citizens before they take part in any part of the process (it’s my understanding that lawyers state-wide vote on the membership of a first committee, then that resulting committee appoints 5 members to the 9-member judicial nominating committee that chooses Kansas judges).  The answer was, no; lawyers are considered “expertly qualified” to be involved with the process merely by being lawyers.

As a result of the unequal application of Kansas laws by various elites, Wichita abortionist George Tiller is very successful.  Dr. Tiller charges in the range of $5-10,000 per late-term abortion, he is known to advertise in Europe, he is known not to follow up on whether patients are doing OK post-procedure (remember, these patients supposedly have permanent mental health conditions), and he is known not to inquire as to whether under-18-year-old patients have been raped.

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Today, at KansasProgress.com, we publish a letter from Kansas Senator Tim Huelskamp, who is running for Congress in the open First Congressional District.  In the letter, Huelskamp asks Kansans to ask now-Governor Mark Parkinson (the 2002 Kansas GOP chairman who in 2006 ran on the Sebelius Democratic ticket) to sign — and not use his line-item-veto authority that he has in spending bills — legislation approved by both houses that will remove the $300,000 annually that Planned Parenthood receives in taxpayer money.  In part:

With the state and local governments in Kansas facing a budget crunch, it seemed ridiculous to me for taxpayers to continue funding an organization that is currently facing more than 100 charges of falsifying abortion records and performing illegal late-term abortions – and one that refuses to report multiple cases of sexual abuse.

Of course, the liberals aren’t happy about this.  On Tuesday, pro-abortion activists decided to apply pressure on the governor.  But asThe Lawrence Journal-World reported, there were only about 25 people who rallied outside the Capitol.  However, they delivered a petition signed by about 3,000 people.

Governor Parkinson received the budget bill last Friday and has until this coming Monday, May 20^th to act upon it.  I urge you to contact his office at (877) 579-6747 and ask him to resist calls to veto what they call the ‘Huelskamp Amendment’.  No one – especially an entity like Planned Parenthood – has a right to be subsidized by our tax money.

LifeNews.com reports that there are only six states at the moment that have similar laws in place.

While I already would support such legislation, what adds to the significance of this legislation is the knowledge (as reported here by LifeNews.com, and here by LifeSiteNews.com) that Kansas Planned Parenthood clinics are willing to cover up alleged sexual abuse:

Two Kansas state legislators, Senator Tim Huelskamp and Representative Lance Kinzer, have released new evidence exposing a similar institutional pattern of cover-up of sexual abuse.

Though the other cases occurred with undercover investigations last year, the new recording in Kansas comes this week.

In a recorded telephone conversation between a girl posing as a 14-year-old and a Planned Parenthood employee at its Overland Park, Kansas facility, the employee is informed that the young girl believes she may be pregnant by her 23-year-old boyfriend.

Planned Parenthood invites the young girl to the clinic for a pregnancy test and informs the potential statutory rape victim that her sexual abuser can come to the clinic to pick up the contraceptives.

The lawmakers tell LifeNews.com that, at no point during the recorded conversation, does the employee raise any concerns about sexual abuse, despite the fact that the situation described constitutes Aggravated Indecent Liberties under Kansas law.