Ruling leaves women’s lives and health in continued jeopardy

Kansas City, Kansas – Today Federal Judge Carlos Murguia issued a ruling blocking the American Association of Pro-Life Physicians (AAPLOG) from intervening in a suit filed by Kansas abortionists challenging the Constitutionality of a new Kansas law that imposed safety standards on previously unregulated abortion clinics.
In his order, Murguia indicated that the entry of AAPLOG into the case would cause unnecessary delay.
“To the extent AAPLOG moves to intervene to request reconsideration of the preliminary injunction and possibly appeal, the court determines that these actions will also unnecessarily delay the underlying lawsuit and prejudice the parties. Therefore, the court exercises its discretion and denies permissive intervention,” read the order.
AAPLOG had sought to challenge a preliminary injunction that has prevented all aspects of the new, multi-faceted law from going into effect. It had hoped to allow the provisions of the law that have already been deemed Constitutional, such as the requirement that abortionists have hospital privileges within 30 miles of their abortion clinics, to go into effect immediately while the contested aspects continued through litigation.
The preliminary injunction is based on temporary regulations that the Legislature had required the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to write. Hearings were recently held on the proposed permanent regulations that are due to go into effect in late October. Operation Rescue submitted over 2,500 pages of documented abortion abuses in support of the permanent regulations.
“It is troubling that the court would deny AAPLOG’s intervention in this case. In doing so, the court continues to block all aspects of the new abortion clinic standards law even though great portions of the law have already been litigated in other states. Those parts of the law should be serving right now to protect women from abortion practices that are little better than medical quackery,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
“Instead, the court has left the women of Kansas subject to shoddy abortion practices, unsafe conditions, and a dangerous lack of access to emergency resources. We hope that this ruling will serve as a wake-up call to motivate the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to aggressively defend the law and take steps to allow the uncontested parts of this law to go into effect immediately.”
Read the Order