Judge agrees with KS AG: no abortion attorney payment

A.G. Schmidt

Kansas pro-lifers got good news from a federal court May 18^th: two Kansas city-area abortion clinics will have to pay their own attorney fees of over $220 thousand dollars without Kansas’ taxpayer reimbursement. Judge Carlos Marguia ruled the clinics had not “prevailed on the merits,” and thus did not qualify for state reimbursement.

Attorneys from the Center for Women’s Health (CWH) and Aid for Women (AFW) had been petitioning for state payment of their attorney fees incurred when the clinics filed to halt both the new state abortion facility licensure law and the provisional clinic regulations written by the Kansas health department (KDHE).

The clinics had sought a permanent injunction in a rushed proceeding July 1, 2011 in front of federal Judge Murguia, claiming irreparable harm would ensue if the law went into effect that day. Judge Murguia awarded only a temporary injunction, largely in order to “maintain the status quo” while issues moved forward.

In November 2011, KDHE issued permanent abortion facility regulations, using a slightly modified version of the original set. Both clinics dropped the federal lawsuit, but the injunction was retained and the lawsuit was refiled in state court by only one clinic CWH (the business of abortionists Herb Hodes and Traci Nauser).

The office of Attorney General Derek Schmidt had filed motions in opposition to paying all the abortion attorneys involved, arguing they were not entitled because such reimbursement is available for “claimants who had prevailed on the merits” in civil rights cases.  [Yes, this is a civil rights case because (hold your groans) one of the claims is that clinic regulation violates a woman’s civil right to obtain an abortion.]

Beyond ineligibility for reimbursement, the Attorney General claimed national and local abortion attorneys had inflated billable hours and wage rates to make a “windfall” off of Kansas taxpayers.  The irony is evident: abortion advocates have been complaining that the defense of pro-life laws is a wasteful depletion of the treasury, and then their own attorneys try to rip-off that same treasury!

Thankfully, that won’t happen at this juncture, due to the litigators working for the AG office.

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Kansas wants clinic lawyers denied overbilled fees

UPDATE, May 18:  Court denies abortion attorney fees.
Abortion supporters, including the Wichita Eagle editorial staff (here, here, here, here, and here and now here) take every opportunity to complain that Kansas tax money is being spent on litigation to uphold pro-life laws enacted in 2011. However, evidence now shows that it is actually abortion clinic attorneys who are trying to cheat taxpayers.

The most recent defense filing from the state of Kansas– in the lawsuit attacking a licensure law upheld in other states– is asking the court to deny any fee award to national and local attorneys for two abortion businesses:  the Center for Women’s Health and Aid for Women.

At issue is a “windfall” for clinic attorneys– according to the State– including over $78,000 for ineligible legal work as well as using indefensible attorney rates of $400 per hour.  All but one of the clinics’ attorneys lack ANY experience in this type of litigation, yet they charged nearly double what attorneys experienced in this specialty would charge- $225 per hour.

State attorneys (including the office of Attorney General Derek Schmidt) demonstrated how the court is being wrongly asked to pay

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High volume, not safety, was legal abortion goal from outset

Mary Kay Culp, KFL Executive Director

In a speech given on the Kansas State Capitol steps last January, I said KFL’s 2011 legislative objectives reflected the recommendations of the Pennsylvania grand jury that investigated “House of Horrors” abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell’s employees have already pleaded guilty to charges of murder, including the killing of one pregnant mother, and the routine killing of born-alive late-term babies. If you have the stomach for it, read the entire report.

The Gosnell grand jury said that to prevent this from ever happening again, one thing that had to change was for state inspectors to be allowed to review abortion files onsite. They pointed out that this, and every one of their strongly-worded recommendations, had been agreed upon by every member of the jury, representing the gamut of opinion on abortion.

Now, the Hodes-Nauser Center for Women’s Health clinic, with abortion lawyers at the Center for Reproductive Rights, have sued our state’s newly revised abortion clinic regulations that have replaced the temporary ones they sued in July.

The abortion industry complained loudly about the first set of regulations that

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Sebelius, Tiller ties to lawsuit blocking KS abortion clinic law

LJ Leatherman (LJWorld, 7-12-10)

Links to Kathleen Sebelius (governor of Kansas from 2003-2009) and the political action fund started by deceased Wichita abortionist, George Tiller, continue to shape actions blocking the operation of Kansas’ abortion facility licensure law.

As permanent health department rules for clinics were set to go into effect 2 days ago, a new restraining order was obtained by the Center for Women’s Health ObGyn /abortion business of Herb Hodes and Traci Nauser. Hodes’ lengthy malpractice record helped spur lawmakers to pass earlier versions of the licensure law that Sebelius vetoed in 2003 and 2005.

The local attorney for the new litigation, LJ Leatherman of Topeka, and his wife, have long ties to Sebelius, and both have been generous donors to ProKanDo, the Tiller PAC.  LJ is the head of Sebelius’ BlueStem PAC, which is still highly active in Kansas politics, and was her election attorney in 2002.

Leatherman’s wife is JaLynn Copp, who worked under Sebelius when she was state Insurance Commissioner, and then moved with her to the Governor’s office as assistant chief counsel. Copp is now legal advisor for the Topeka police department.

Julie Burkhart guided the abortion cartel’s legislative position in Kansas since 2003 as head of ProKanDo, and continues to do so under its successor, the Trust Women abortion advocacy group. Burkhart has been hovering over the licensure litigation while feeding updates to the press on fundraising to open a new Wichita abortion business in June 2012. Burkhart claims to have already secured an abortionist, who will have to be Kansas-licensed, with local hospital privileges, when the new facility licensure law is in effect.

The law would allow twice annual onsite inspections and prompt reporting to the state of abortion-caused injuries or death of the mother.  The new permanent KDHE rules (pg 1466, here), which were devised to further implement the law, are being challenged in this state court filing.

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KS abortion regs under restraining order from State Court

Judge Franklin Theis

Last Thursday, attorneys for the father/daughter abortion team at the Overland Park, Kansas, Center for Women’s Health (CFWH) quietly obtained a restraining order from Judge Franklin R. Theis blocking new Kansas abortion facility rules from going into effect Monday, Nov. 14.

So far, no hearing date is posted on the court website. The filing, #11C-1298 in Shawnee County (Topeka) District Court, also

asked for a preliminary and permanent injunction against the new health department (KDHE) rules and a bench ruling striking them down.

CFWH abortionists, Herb Hodes and Traci Nauser, had obtained a July 1 injunction in federal court against the provisional KDHE abortion facility rules designed to expire Nov. 14.  As is the usual process in Kansas, new laws go into effect with temporary agency rules, allowing a public input period before the permanent rules are enacted.

In the permanent rules, published Oct. 27, KDHE accommodated a few of the abortionists’ complaints.  KDHE expanded the room temperature mandate, shortened the post-op stay, removed minimum room sizes and reduced the number of limited-access restrooms, but that was not enough to keep CFWH from suing.

Among their legal claims, the abortionists assert that the KDHE rules:

• “are oppressive, unreasonable and arbitrary government interference that would significantly impair, if not altogether eliminate …their existing medical practice”;
• violate abortionists’ rights, and those of their patients under the Kansas Bill of Rights;
• perpetuate “the patronizing and paternalistic stereotype that women are in need of special ‘protection’ not needed by men”;
• allow KDHE access to patients’ complete records “without adequate justification.”

The patient privacy complaint,

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Abortion clinics and N.O.W. testify vs new KS regulations

Rep. Mast recounted constituent reports of abortion abuse

Abortion supporters demanded abortion be made legal so it could be safe.  Thus, it is they who should be at the forefront of hounding state officials to monitor and close woman-injuring, outrageously deficient abortion businesses. But they are not.

Kansas abortion facility oversight was introduced in 2002 and has been shepherded by Kansans for Life through its passage this spring as House substitute bill 36.

The need for such a law was based originally on a corrupt State Healing Arts Board that ignored documented abortionist malfeasance, including 4 (later, 5) patient deaths.

In Kansas, any physician who has failed in another medical field (including a lung specialist, and a psychiatrist) can “take up abortion” without formal ob/gyn training. Patient mistreatment and botched abortions do not quickly catch up with such practitioners because

the shame factor hinders injured women from contacting state regulators or filing lawsuits as freely as they would for other kinds of medical malpractice.

From the outset, Kansas abortionists have adamantly denied the validity of state inspection and that position continued today at a public hearing required before abortion licensure regulations can become permanent.

The new health agency regulations were blasted as ridiculous, “written by committees without doctors” and “not helpful to women” (!) by N.O.W, Planned Parenthood executives and abortionist Herb Hodes (who’s suing the regulations).

Rep. Peggy Mast (R-Emporia) attended today’s hearing and was especially irritated by such assertions. She testified it was unbelievable that an organization that claims to speak for women could

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Court grants clinics’ injunction without full information

Father/daughter abortionists, Hodes & Nauser (image from MSNBC, Rachel Maddow show)

Kansas’ new abortion facility law went into effect Friday, July 1, but by 4pm, a court-order granted a temporary injunction against the entire law until a trial is held.  See KFL press release here.

The 2 Kansas abortion businesses that did not undergo the required inspection from the state health division (KDHE), joined in filing a lawsuit claiming

• there wasn’t enough time to comply with new regulations,
• the regulations were unneeded and onerous, and
• the entire endeavor is a plan to end abortion in Kansas.

Assistant Kansas Attorney General Steve Fabert defended the new regulations in court, and argued that the 2 clinics should be petitioning for administrative relief instead of halting the entire law through injunction. The fact that Planned Parenthood was granted a license indicated the regulations were not unreasonable.

“We are disappointed by the judge’s decision [but] he emphasized more than once that it was very early in the process

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KS abortionist reveals 5 KS abortion deaths in past 5 yrs

Christin Gilbert, 2005 Wichita abortion death

Overland Park, Kansas abortionist, Herbert Hodes, traveled to Topeka Wednesday to testify against the abortion clinic licensing bill, but while doing so, revealed something neither the committee nor the public has ever heard–that there have been 5 maternal abortion deaths in Kansas over the past 5 years!

This bombshell admission alone should prove why Kansas needs the Abortion Clinic Licensure  Act, HB 2337, which was the subject of the House Federal & State Affairs committee hearing that continues today.

So, an abortionist who came to oppose clinic licensure inadvertently gave us the very reason to pass this legislation!  This begs the question if there were that many maternal abortion deaths, how many abortion injuries are occurring ?

HB 2337 and its twin in the Senate, SB 165, are essentially the same legislation to regulate clinics that former Gov. Sebelius vetoed twice, claiming it was unneeded in 2003 and that it unfairly singled out abortion in 2005.

HB 2337 creates abortion incident reporting to KDHE and professional boards such that the death of an aborted mother is reported within 1 business day and other injuries within 10 business days.

Unfortunately, the hearing was on a shortened time frame and committee members wanting to further question Hodes learned he would not be able to return Thursday. Some of the questions to pose would be:

1) How did Hodes hear of these deaths, and were any from his business?

2) How many deaths were reported to the state Board of Healing Arts? Kansans for Life has

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Only 3 KS abortion sites, after Lawrence’s PP quietly closed

Door posting tells of Aug. 31 Lawrence PP closing

Now that the Planned Parenthood of Lawrence, near the University of Kansas (KU), quietly closed 9 weeks ago, Kansas is down to 3 abortion clinics–all in the northeast corner of the state.

The Lawrence PP street-mall facility was not licensed or inspected by the state.  It provided contraceptives and chemical abortions with no doctor onsite. The notice on the door attributes its closure to a “lack of need” and recommends the county and KU clinics as well as the PP clinic one-half-hour away.

Too many resident KU students went to this facility, instead of getting help from their family and connecting with sound pro-life physicians.   We recommend pregnant women of any age consult the Pregnancy Care Center of Lawrence, where they can obtain physician-reviewed ultrasounds and assistance for a variety of needs. (see this list for other centers across Kansas)

Kansas’ remaining abortion facilities are:

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