No Evidence Missouri’s Abortion Surgery Center Sold Fetal Parts September 28, 2015

(AP) – An investigation found “no evidence whatsoever” that Missouri’s only surgical abortion facility sells fetal remains, Attorney General Chris Koster said Monday, marking the latest response to a heated national debate over Planned Parenthood’s handling of fetal tissue.
The Democrat said interviews and documentation from his office’s investigation show that tissue from the more than 300 surgical abortions performed at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood in June was properly incinerated. The nearly 50-page report details contracts that Koster said track fetal tissue from the abortion clinic to a pathology lab and then to an incinerator.
“We have discovered no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility is selling fetal tissue,” Koster said in a statement.
Several state attorneys general and health departments began reviewing state practices following the release of undercover videos in July by anti-abortion activists. The videos show officials from the national organization discussing the transfer of tissue for medical research, which spurred criticism primarily by Republicans.

Brownback & Koster Expanding Planned Parenthood Probes July 21, 2015

The investigation into Planned Parenthood’s sale of fetal tissue has extended in to Kansas and Missouri.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, a fierce abortion opponent, is asking for the Kansas Board of Healing Arts and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to investigate whether or not any Kansas abortion facilities sell tissue from aborted fetuses.

Earlier Tuesday, Missouri Democratic Attorney General, Chris Koster announced he would investigate Missouri Planned Parenthood facilities..

In the first secretly recorded video by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), Planned Parenthood Executive Dr. Deborah Nucatola tells the persons recording the video the Planned Parenthood affiliate in St. Louis would be a good place to purchase tissue.

It is not illegal to sell tissue, but it is illegal to make a profit from it.

Koster said in a statement today, “regardless of whether one is pro-life or pro-choice the questions raised by these videos require careful review.”

The Executive Director of Missouri Right to Life, Patti Skain says her group is reserving judgment on the quality and the scope of Koster’s investigation.
Skain told KMBC TV, “AG Koster is not pro-life. And he does not believe in the constitutional right to life of an unborn child.”

The President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Mid Missouri and Kansas,, Laura McQuade told KMBC in a statement, “our affiliates do not have or participate in tissue donation programs. Planned Parenthood Affiliates follow all laws”.

The AP quotes her as saying the investigation are politically motivated.

Two other Missouri investigation may start up. Both Missouri house And State senators are organizing their own investigations.

Missouri Lawmakers Plan St. Louis Planned Parenthood Probe July 17, 2015

(AP) – Two Republican state lawmakers from Missouri announced plans Friday to investigate the state’s only abortion facility after anti-abortion activists released an undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s national medical director discussing the disposition of parts from aborted fetuses.
The video, which shows Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, discussing procedures for providing fetal body parts to researchers, has spurred outrage from a number of Republican elected officials nationwide.
While the commercial sale of fetal tissue is outlawed, Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions and other reproductive health services, said in response to the video that it legally helps women who want to make not-for-profit donations of their fetus’ organs for scientific research.
Republican Reps. Andrew Koenig, chair of the Missouri’s House Ways and Means Committee, and Diane Franklin, chair of the House Children and Families Committee, said they will coordinate a joint investigation into whether the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis sold aborted fetuses for profit. The investigation follows similar investigations in Georgia and Indiana, as well as a probe announced Wednesday by three Republican-led congressional committees.

Planned Parenthood Takes Newest Kansas Abortion Law to Court June 1, 2015

AP) – An abortion rights group is challenging Kansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on a commonly used procedure to end second-trimester pregnancies.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Shawnee County District Court by the Center for Reproductive Rights asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional. It also seeks to block implantation of the law, which is to take effect in July. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of doctors Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser of the Center for Women’s Health in Overland Park.

A spokeswoman for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said his office would issue a statement later.

Anti-abortion activists describe the method as dismembering a fetus.

Kansas Pays Nearly $1 Million Defending Abortion Laws October 15, 2013

(AP)–Kansas has paid more than $913,000 to two private law firms that are helping the state defend anti-abortion laws enacted since conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback took office, and such expenses appear likely to grow.

The attorney general’s office disclosed the figures in response to requests from The Associated Press. More than $126,000 in legal fees stem from two lawsuits filed this summer against restrictions enacted just this year.

Kansas has enacted sweeping limits on abortion and providers since Brownback took office in January 2011, though it hasn’t attempted to ban abortions in the earliest weeks of pregnancies as Arkansas and North Dakota have. The newest Kansas restrictions, challenged in separate state and federal lawsuits this summer, block tax breaks for abortion providers and even govern what appears on their websites.

A state-court lawsuit is still pending against health and safety regulations approved in 2011 specifically for abortion clinics, but the state prevailed in a federal lawsuit against 2011 restrictions on private health insurance coverage for elective abortions. All of those cases have been handled by the firm of Thompson Ramsdell & Qualseth, of Lawrence.

A federal lawsuit against a 2011 law preventing the state from distributing federal family planning dollars to Planned Parenthood to provide non-abortion services is before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. That case has been handled by Foulston Siefkin, the state’s largest law firm, with offices in Wichita, Topeka and Overland Park.

Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said Monday that the spending shows the Republican-dominated Legislature is more interested in “political posturing” on abortion than good financial stewardship. His organization provides abortions at a clinic in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park and is involved in two federal lawsuits.