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Loading...Koch Bros. Lawyers Defend Move To Defund Planned Parenthood
Kansas is serious about permanently defunding Planned Parenthood. So serious, in fact, that it is prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars on lawyers to do so.
Last month the state passed a measure stripping Planned Parenthood of all funding over the straw-man argument of “taxpayer-funded abortions.” Planned Parenthood struck back, suing the state for improperly blocking the $334,000 in Title X family planning funds.
But rather than use the attorney general’s office to defend the suit, Gov. Sam Brownback has hired the white-shoe law firm of Foulston Siekfin, a firm who just happens to represent the billionaire Koch brothers.
“This is a state whose budget is in bad shape, run by Republicans who campaigned on fixing budget problems, and they’re spending thousands of dollars on outside counsel to keep Planned Parenthood from getting federal family planning funds,” said Peter Brownlie, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
Planned Parenthood is represented by a team of pro-bono attorneys in Washington, D.C. with one local Wichita attorney.
The economic waste generated by the Brownback administration’s assault on poor women is simply mind-boggling, especially in such bleak economic times. Brownback and other hard-right conservatives see no problem in wasting millions of tax-payer dollars on advancing a social agenda that is fueled by nothing more than a disdain of poor women and, in this latest move, have proven they no longer even care about keeping up appearances that these assaults are somehow tied to a legitimate fiscal agenda.
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Read more: abortion, abortion rights, defunding, family planning services, gov. sam brownback, kansas, planned parenthood, reproductive health, reproductive justice, reproductive rights, title x, war on women, war_on_women
Photo from steakpinball via flickr.
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+ add your own"This is a state whose budget is in bad shape, run by Republicans who campaigned on fixing budget problems, and they’re spending thousands of dollars on outside counsel to keep Planned Parenthood from getting federal family planning funds...”
Oh, they are so awesome, those Reps! See the suggestion some have made about the sequestration: Cut entitlement programs and every thing else even more and let Defense Department the way it is!
Budget only matter when it comes to government programs that tend to help the poor and medium class (vide student loans, public schools, health care).
Shame on them!
Unbridled arrogance....enabled by Republican stooges who helped pass laws to recognize corporations as "citizens" with entitlements!
Pay attention people....if you vote Republican, you vote for these people. And YOU have become a stooge.
Republicans are stupid, disgusting liars!
Foulston Siekfin, Brownback? Sounds like terrible diseases.
This needs to be forwarded around so more people become aware of it. Spread this far and wide.
Very two-faced Brownback. How did you fool voters when you waste their tax money like this instead of getting them jobs and helping their economy in these troubled times? What a jerk. The majority of Kansas voters seem to never learn with their history of electing officials who impede education and continuing to screw themselves over.
Sam is promoting his own personal agenda! There is no seperation of church and government with him. And the Koch brothers are the worst whores on earth! They will rape, pillage and rob society and sell their own mother into sexual slavery if they can make a buck!
Kansans need to wake up and vote a recall on this SOB before people die because of his mindless policies.
They are not making any sense. I thought the Republicans were all about spending less money and smaller government and such. At least that's what they said. But I guess they'll stay out of your bedroom only when you are properly married, don't use birth control and never get an abortion. Being highly religious (Republican-approved religion, of course, god forbid you are Muslim) probably helps, too.
Maybe it's because I'm not American, but I have never understood how it can be that a party that was progressive during the Civil War can nowadays contain so many narrow-minded backwards individuals.
Planned Parenthood does not get much in the way of public funds. Your elected leaders spend more on trips out of state then the US government spends on planned parenthood. Asking the Government to defund planned parenthood makes as much sense as....well, it doesn't make sense at all!
Have to breed more people to buy their products! Koch is one of the worst corporate giants out there in terms of ethics and morality. Of court, remember that the GOP and Koch are literally in bed with each other! This is another example of infiltration of the political system to take away the voice of the people of this country! It is so unfortunate that these political parties have been able to manipulate the citizens of the US so that we are Republican and Democrats and no longer Americans. That is why Koch Inc. can infect the system and make decisions that are totally contrary to the public welfare. I would like to see everyone take a stand in the next election and NOT vote party. Write in or vote independent, Green or whatever. These parties and corporations know that they have a brainwashed public out here and that is where they get their power! Insofar as the Administration and Congress is concerned, it cannot get much worse. NObama fooled everyone, he lies, he schemes, he sells us out (and I am a life-long Democrat), from wolves, to endangered species, he is a big oil whore, has given away 200M aces of wilderness to corporate development, is pushing to let Exxon Mobil and Shell into the Arctic, etc. So is it any surprise despots like Koch can get their dirty fingers in the pie? Of course not - our wonderful elected officials invite it. None of them should be asked back to the dance!
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