Kansas Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson has once again demonstrated he has an approach to "life" issues that is almost identical to Kansas' former Democratic governor, abortion supporter Kathleen Sebelius.

Parkinson, along with Roderick Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, completely defunded the Sen. Stan Clark Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative, which helped women facing crisis pregnancies. The move came with no formal announcement only weeks after Parkinson vetoed a measure that would have defunded Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas in favor of community health facilities. Planned Parenthood is an abortion provider.

The purpose of the initiative was to provide services for pregnant women so they could carry their unborn children to term. The program included counseling services where alternatives to abortion, such as adoption, are discussed. The initiative served a significant portion of women living below the federal poverty level.

Sebelius had supported defunding the program several times, and was successful in eliminating it once in 2004, though the Legislature reinstated it the following year.

After several rounds of cuts, the pregnancy maintenance initiative was supposed to receive about $345,000 in state funds for fiscal year 2010.

In early July, Parkinson announced that he would need to make allotments to patch holes in the budget, and, as a result, the crisis pregnancy program was completely defunded and eliminated.

A statement by the Kansas Catholic Conference issued yesterday said that because of the pregnancy maintenance initiative, “there are children alive today who otherwise, as victims of abortion, would not be among us.”

When asked why this particular program was targeted for elimination, Beth Martino, spokesperson for Parkinson, directed the blame away from the governor.

“The reductions for most agencies simply target dollar amounts,” Martino told Kansas Liberty. “In most cases, the governor did not identify specific programs or initiatives that he recommended for reductions.  The governor trusts cabinet officials to make their reductions based on the priorities for their agencies.”

Bremby is the cabinet member in charge of overseeing the pregnancy initiative.  A group of 23 legislators had requested to Bremby and Parkinson on July 1 that funding for the initiative be maintained at the level approved by the Legislature.

“We often hear a great deal about the need for people on all sides of the abortion question to come together to reduce abortion,” the letter said. “The Senator Stan Clark Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative is central to that effort…the enormous benefit of this program is entirely out of proportion to its relatively small cost.”

Bremby admitted to eliminating the program when he responded to the legislators in a letter dated July 17.

“To meet the additional two percent allotment reduction, PMI (Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative), the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program and the Meth Lab Clean Up programs have been suspended,” Bremby said in the letter. “The agency’s response to the allotment was by no means an easy one.”

Michael Schuttloffel, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, said that regardless of who made the final decision to eliminate the initiative, Parkinson should be held accountable for allowing the program to become defunded.

“Whether Parkinson made the decision himself is immaterial,” Schuttloffel told Kansas Liberty. “It is his administration, and he takes the credit when things go well, and he has to take the blame when bad decisions are made.”

The actual defunding occurred about a month ago, but because no official announcement was made, it took pro-life groups awhile to realize what had happened.

After learning of the action, the Kansas Catholic Conference sent a letter to the governor’s office to ask that the program be reinstated.  Joseph Naumann, archbishop of Kansas City, Ronald Gilmore, bishop of Dodge City, Paul Coakley, bishop of Salina, and Michael Jackels, bishop of Wichita, signed off on the letter, which was sent to Parkinson last Friday. Schuttloffel said that, to his knowledge, Parkinson had not yet responded.

In the letter, the Kansas Catholic Conference brought up that Parkinson’s action to defund the pregnancy initiative comes just months after his decision to line-item veto a provision that would have directed public dollars away from Planned Parenthoods in Kansas.

The letter — addressed to Parkinson — said that eliminating the pregnancy initiative “will send a disturbing message about our priorities as a state, especially when taken in concert with your recent veto of a budget amendment restricting public funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.”

In his veto message for the Planned Parenthood provision, Parkinson said he was making the decision to ensure that contraception could be available to women, thus decreasing the amount of abortions provided in the state. However, Schuttloffel said allowing the pregnancy initiative to be suspended would likely cause an increase in abortions.

“There is no question that it will not help the efforts to reduce abortion, and it is certainly probable that this will increase the incidents of abortion in the state,” Schuttloffel said.

Schuttloffel said the Parkinson administration was sending a message that abortion efforts should only be targeted at pre-conception.

“But once a woman is pregnant, then she is on her own and those efforts to reduce abortion go away,” he said.

Schuttloffel said he was disappointed but not necessarily surprised by Parkinson’s actions.

"This sends us the signal that he is not going to be a helpful partner on these issues, to put it mildly,” he said. 

Resources

The Kansas Catholic Conference letter to Parkinson
http://www.kscathconf.org/bins/site/templates/splash.asp?NC=3934X

Legislators to Governor, 7/1/09
http://www.kansasliberty.com/liberty-update-archive/2009/10aug/7.1.09%20legislators%20to%20Parkinson%20-%20Bremby.pdf

Secretary to Legislators, 7/17/09
http://www.kansasliberty.com/liberty-update-archive/2009/10aug/7.17.09%20Bremby%20to%20legislators%20PMI.pdf

Kansas Bishops to Governor, 7/31/09
http://www.kansasliberty.com/liberty-update-archive/2009/10aug/7.31.09%20Bishops%20letter%20to%20Governor%20PMI.pdf

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