President Barack Obama aboard Air Force One (Pic by The White House, via Flickr)

North Dakota is on its way to becoming the first state in the country to have an operating health insurance exchange program. Each state is required by the Affordable Care Act to have some infrastructure in place by January 2013 for an exchange. Florida remains one of the lone states dragging its feet.

The Grand Forks Herald reports that North Dakota is on track to pass legislation that would set up its state exchange.

According to the Herald:

House Bill 1474, drafted by the Health Care Reform Review Committee after the regular legislative session ended this spring, would create a North Dakota health insurance benefit exchange system.

Under the federal legislation, all states must have an operational health benefit exchange by Jan. 1, 2014 or the secretary of Health and Human Services must create one.

Pam Sharp, director of the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget, said the key component of the exchange would be a new website that would allow residents to compare costs and benefits of affordable health insurance plans.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report (.pdf) that said as of “August 17, 2011, 39 states and the District of Columbia have introduced some form of legislation promoting exchange implementation.”

“Among the 34 states where the legislation would fully establish a state exchange program, ten states enacted such bills into law,” the group reports.

Only 11 states, Florida among them, have not introduced any legislation to establish a state exchange program.

Florida is among only five states not using federal grants meant to help the state plan and research for an exchange. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that “Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma reportedly will return exchange grant funds.”

This week, health advocates touring the state warned that Florida had done “virtually nothing” to follow the law’s mandates. The groups also warned that the state would cede their authority to the federal government if the state did not meet the deadlines.

The group is accussing Sebelius of “destroying incriminating evidence” that it claims is “at the heart of the current felony charges against Planned Parenthood of Kansas Mid-Missouri.”

Kansas, a state rife with anti-abortion activism, currently has one licensed women’s health clinic that offers abortions: Planned Parenthood. Anti-abortion advocates have been trying to get every women’s health clinic that provides abortions in the state closed down for many years. This past legislative session, laws were passed that targeted clinics that offer abortion, which made it more difficult for clinics to operate.

Planned Parenthood was charged in 2005 by former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline of 23 felony counts of falsifying pregnancy termination reports, The Kansas City Star reports.

Kansans for Life says records important to the case were shredded by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Officials say the shredding was part of a “routine” destruction of state documents, the City Star reports. The records were also shredded two years before charges were filed:

The shredding occurred when KDHE was under Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Officials at KDHE, now part of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, declined to comment.

The destroyed records were critical in establishing the authenticity of records from 2003 that Kline obtained when he investigated Planned Parenthood as attorney general. Planned Parenthood also provided copies of the records, but Kline contended that those did not match the ones he had in his possession.

In 2007, after he became Johnson County prosecutor, Kline filed a 107-count complaint against the abortion provider.

In addition to the 23 felonies, the complaint also charged Planned Parenthood with multiple misdemeanor counts of failing to maintain the pregnancy termination reports, failing to perform viability tests on fetuses and unlawful late-term abortions.

Kansans for Life Executive Director Mary Kay Culp said in a recent press release that “only guilty people destroy evidence; not even we anticipated Sebelius and her administration could stoop this low to protect abortion industry criminality, but this proves they did.”

“Sebelius wanted to insure that evidence of illegal abortions was removed before Kline could use it to convict her abortion industry campaign supporters,” she said in a statement.

According to the National Partnership for Women and Children:

The findings could shed light on a point of contention in the abortion-rights debate and potentially affect clinical care for preterm infants.

Researchers used electroencephalography to compare preterm infants’ brain activity in response to a touch and a heel prick. Infants born at 28 to 35 weeks of development showed comparable brain activity for the touch and heel prick, but infants born at more than 35 weeks of gestation exhibited a greater response to the heel prick than the touch.

During its most recent legislative session, Florida was among a handful of states that considered one of these medically disputed “fetal pain” bills. Even though Florida eventually did not enact House Bill 321, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and Indiana all passed bills this year that make such restrictions.

Harvard researchers also released a study this past May that shows found “fetal pain” bills were “neither scientifically nor constitutionally sound.”

Jennie Linn McCormack, a mother of three from Pocatello, Idaho, was initially arrested and prosecuted in December 2010 for inducing her own abortion, when she was between 20 and 21 weeks of gestation, with the abortion pill RU 486, which she bought on the Internet, reports Reuters. She was charged under a 1972 state law that classifies ending one’s own pregnancy as a felony, before a judge threw out her case for lack of evidence. Now McCormack is suing the attorney that prosecuted her, Mark Hiedeman.

Idaho’s new late-term abortion law — signed and enacted immediately by Republican Gov. Butch Otter in April — makes it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks, except in a situation where the mother’s life is in danger. Though this law was not in effect when McCormack took the abortion drugs, her suit includes both the 20-week abortion ban and the 1972 law; in the suit she claims she induced her own abortion because of the general lack of access to abortions for women in her state. According to the Associated Press, McCormack was single and unemployed when police arrested her after discovering the dead fetus in a box at her home.

McCormack’s case -– depending on how far up the court system it goes –- could impact the five other states that have banned abortion after 20 weeks, beginning with Nebraska in 2010, followed by Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Alabama.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that “Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma reportedly will return exchange Planning and/or Early Innovator grant funds” awarded by the Affordable Care Act. Other states — while not universally writing legislation to begin implementation — are at least accepting the grants to begin the early steps of the implementation. #

Florida’s state Legislature has not accepted various grants since the law’s passage. Legislators have turned down money awarded to the state for community health centers, child abuse and neglect prevention, and grants to help seniors avoid or get out of nursing homes. Their reasoning has been that the state is currently in litigation with the federal government over the constitutionality of health care reform. Despite the dismissal of all these grants, the legislature did accept Affordable Care Act funds for abstinence education. #

Half the country is in litigation against the law, yet most states are still accepting grant money. #

Right now, Gov. Rick Scott is working with the federal government in an effort to possibly recoup some of the dismissed grants. #

Here is the map of the 2010 and 2011 “Exchange Grant Awards” from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: #

#

Former Kansas District Attorney Phill Kline initially filed the lawsuit in 2007, accusing the affiliate of falsifying records and performing illegal late-term abortions; assistant county prosecutor Chris McMullin is now leading the case.

According to the Star, a Johnson County judge ruled during a motions hearing Friday that the public will be allowed to view medical documents being used as evidence in the case, despite Planned Parenthood’s attorneys’ argument (PDF) that this would violate confidentiality agreements with their patients.

In response, the state argued (PDF):

Victim records, including colposcope photographs of genitals, are presented in court, in a discrete manner. Pornography depicting minors is routinely presented in court. Are these items less deserving of privacy and respect?

The Kansas affiliate is facing the type of scrutiny anti-abortion rights activists and certain members of Congress wish upon Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Last week, eight Republican representatives met at a press conference with officials from the public-interest law firm Americans United for Life (AUL), which recently released areport citing criminal allegations against Planned Parenthood and its affiliates. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) said she and some of her colleagues are working on launching an investigation against the health care and abortion provider but could not identify any specific plans for action.

Just as AUL is trying to help spark a legal case against PPFA, Wichita, Kans.-based Operation Rescue has been encouraging legal action against the Kansas affiliate for many years, and is now taking credit on their website for having “helped convene a citizen-called grand jury” to investigate Kansas’ Planned Parenthood affiliate.

Operation Rescue has created a time line of events leading up to this fall’s hearing against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The organization claims that between November 2006 and 2009, Operation Rescue has:

• exposed “gross misrepresentations” from the late Dr. George Tiller’s attorneys to the media about the release of subpoenaed abortion records,
• submitted a petition and letter to Congress calling for a grand jury investigation and a halt to funding for the Kansas affiliate,
• released four recently unsealed court records claiming Kline’s previous prosecution against the affiliate was actively being undermined by former Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six.

In May 2009, Operation Rescue released an undercover tape that encouraged the Kansas Legislature to pass an amendment to defund the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliate, but the amendment was vetoed by former Gov. Mark Parkinson. Now Operation Rescue is advertising on its site a DVDs of the documentary Bloodmoney, which was filmed in 2009 and features testimony from Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. According to the filmmakers, this movie is about Planned Parenthood, “a multi-billion dollar industry that literally thrives on the destruction of unborn babies and the traumatizing of young pregnant women.”

Watch the trailer:

On its website, the SBA List is keeping a “State by State Scoreboard” showing that to date, approximately $60,399,000 in federal and state funding has been stripped from Planned Parenthood affiliates in eight states. SBA breaks down that total amount by how much Planned Parenthood has been “defunded” in each state:

• Indiana: $2 million
• Kansas: $330,000
• New Hampshire: $1.8 million
• New Jersey: $7.5 million
• North Carolina: $434,000
• Tennessee: $335,000
• Texas: $47 million
• Wisconsin: $1 million

The SBA List has essentially declared war on the “abortion giant.” On its website, SBA notes that: “Our efforts during the federal budget fight gave Planned Parenthood a black eye.” The group recently garnered much attention surrounding a presidential pledge to support only judicial nominees and cabinet members opposed to abortion rights in most cases, to defund Planned Parenthood and to support a national “fetal pain” bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Americans United for Life (AUL) has similarly taken credit for the state-by-state defunding trend. Last week, the group released a report accusing Planned Parenthood of financial and criminal wrongdoing and distributed copies of this report on Capitol Hill. As The Florida Independent reported, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, has suggested he might look at the report and launch an investigation of Planned Parenthood, telling POLITICO PULSE:

“I believe my Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee should review the findings of this report and possibly hold a hearing on why taxpayers are funding Planned Parenthood with its record of abuse and violations of state laws. The American people deserve a concrete reason for funding Planned Parenthood; a reason I do not believe exists.”

In the past, Stearns has identified himself as a friend to the anti-abortion rights movement and several times has introduced legislation to give federal funding to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” but his proposed legislation has never moved. Back in February, Stearns promised anti-abortion rights groups that he would call a hearing to investigate Planned Parenthood, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Since Planned Parenthood released a rebuttal, fact-checking AUL’s report, the anti-abortion rights groups has renewed its call for a congressional investigation and has released its own rebuttal (PDF) to Planned Parenthood’s rebuttal. On Tuesday, Kellie Fiedorek, staff counsel for AUL, is scheduled to discuss her organization’s allegations against Planned Parenthood at a Bloggers Briefing sponsored by the Heritage Foundation.

The Kansas City Star reports: #

A national abortion rights group on Wednesday took aim at a lawyer named to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts because he has represented an anti-abortion group. #

Trust Women PAC ripped into Gov. Sam Brownback’s appointment of Rick Macias to the board, which licenses and disciplines Kansas physicians. Macias, who was appointed Tuesday, has done legal work for Operation Rescue. #

Operation Rescue President Troy Newman has told The Florida Independent that he thinks all abortion clinics commit crimes. “I have yet to find an abortion mill that doesn’t violate the law,” he said. #

The group also thinks that all abortion providers should be scrutinized. Recently, the group announced that it would be conducting a “massive research project to identify every abortionist in the country.” The group asked fellow anti-abortion advocates to contribute any information they can about abortion providers where they live. #

Now Macias will be part of a “15-member Board of Healing Arts handles licensing for medical doctors, physical therapists, and other health care providers,” Mother Jonesreports. Macias will serve on the board through June 2014. #

Mother Jones also reports: #

Abortion rights advocates and the operators of the clinics that were shut down say the law was meant to shut down abortion clinics. It specifically stipulated new requirementsthat included “having emergency door that can accommodate a gurney … maintaining proper emergency equipment, drugs and protocols, having proper lighting and ventilation, lavatory areas, and spaces for the sterilization of surgical equipment. Clinics must also have a licensed nurse in the clinic when abortions are done.” The clinics were also given a short amount time to comply with the new strict requirements. #

Even though an injunction against the strict law was granted, the state agency in charge of regulating the clinics says it can still impose new rules. #

Talking Points Memo reports: #

Robert Moser, secretary of health and environment for the state, said the department will follow the law, but “Judge Murguia’s ruling is narrowly tailored and does not prevent KDHE from moving forward to establish permanent licensing regulations.” #

State officials said they will respect the judge’s ruling, but they will not wait to continue regulating the clinics. The first set of rules the agency says they will impose will be “temporary.” According to the Associated Press, this allows them to “avoid taking public comments and get the rules in place within weeks, though they could remain in effect afterward for only four months.” The next set of rules, however, “would be considered permanent and require public comment.” #

One of the clinic operators who filed the injunction against Kansas’ law said the clinic will “challenge the permanent rules if [the new rules] are similarly strict.” #

Planned Parenthood was the only clinic that was granted a license in the state of Kansas under the law that was recently blocked. #

Though Indiana’s law was recently struck down by a federal judge for violating federal Medicaid rules and the others are beginning to face legal challenges, anti-abortion rights groups like Americans United for Life (AUL) are pushing every state in the country to eliminate family planning funds that go to Planned Parenthood. In an AUL-penned op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week, the group’s leaders promised that “measures to defund the abortion industry will remain a top priority for states in 2011 and will re-emerge in 2012.”

In its effort to push this priority, Americans United for Life has emailed supporters several times a week throughout the past month to ask for money to cover a budget gap. On Wednesday, Yoest emailed supporters asking for an “emergency contribution” because, she said, the organization has until Thursday to raise $65,700; the initial budget goal for June was $116,000.

In the WSJ piece, Yoest and legal affairs vice president Denise M. Burke blamed Planned Parenthood for the Indiana’s potential loss in funding for reproductive services — because Planned Parenthood of Indiana (PPIN) challenged the state for pulling its family-planning funding. Due to the way Indiana’s government chose to cancel Medicaid contracts with PPIN (which the state’s Legislative Services Agency initially warned might not be legal), the federal government threatened to block all Medicaid funding to the state.

“Who here is really endangering women?” Yoest and Burke wrote. “Clearly, Planned Parenthood and the administration are willing to deny thousands of needy men, women and children health care in order to protect the bottom lines of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.”

Planned Parenthood’s argument looks a little different, of course, claiming that states are reducing access to affordable reproductive services for women who are on Medicaid or who have no health insurance based on ideological beliefs about abortion.

“I am extremely disappointed that the [Wisconsin] state legislature would wage a political attack against each and every one of the 73,000 patients Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin serves,” said Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin President Teri Huyck in a statement released last week after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a budget bill that eliminated state and federal funding for Planned Parenthood. “It is greatly disturbing that some politicians’ personal beliefs are trumping our shared responsibility to make sure women and men have access to preventive reproductive health care. The health care we provide saves lives and saves money for all Wisconsin taxpayers.”

To recap, here are the states that have moved to strip family planning funding from Planned Parenthood this legislative session:

• Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed legislation on May 10, essentially banning all contracts between state agencies and Planned Parenthood and prohibiting grants for any entity that performs abortions or operates a facility where abortions are performed. This week, part of the law was overturned and Planned Parenthood of Indiana is currently allowed to serve Medicaid beneficiaries, though the state has since filed an appeal. Planned Parenthood has 28 clinics in the state, four of which that provide abortions.

• Kansas approved legislation redirecting more than $300,000 in family-planning funding away from Planned Parenthood to “full-service health clinics.” Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri operates three clinics in Kansas, only one of which provided abortions, until the state recently passed another abortion-related law requiring abortion clinics to obtain licenses and meet specific criteria. Kansas’ abortion-providing clinic in Overland Park was inspected last week butdid not meet the new criteria.

• Tennessee passed a new budget on May 21 that prevents Planned Parenthood from receiving federal Title X family planning funding. Approximately $335,000 in funding is to be redirected to government-run health agencies, exclusively. AsThe Commercial Appeal pointed out following the bill passage, Tennessee law says that all Title X money must go to state and local health departments unless all the required services cannot be provided, at which time they can go to private agencies such as Planned Parenthood. The Appeal also reported that another amendment in the same budget appears to contradict the Section 78 amendment responsible for defunding Planned Parenthood: “Section 78 of this act shall not be construed to supersede applicable provisions of federal and state law.” Inmost recent news, Planned Parenthood’s Memphis location is continuing to deliver reproductive services on a monthly basis until the county health department can take over the services or find new providers. Planned Parenthood has three centers in Tennessee, all which offer abortion services.

• North Carolina’s legislature voted on June 15 to override Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of its new budget (which takes effect July 1) that eliminates all state and federal funding to the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliate except for Medicaid funding. North Carolina has nine Planned Parenthood clinics, four of which offer medication and surgical abortion services.

• New Hampshire defunded Planned Parenthood by executive order, voiding a $1.8 million family-planning contract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The Union Leader reported that New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas said he was unsure how retracting these funds from Planned Parenthood will affect the delivery of services to New Hampshire residents. New Hampshire has six Planned Parenthood-runclinics, three of which offer medication and surgical abortion services. Of those three, only two centers — in Manchester and West Lebanon — offer surgical abortions at only 12.6 weeks from the last date of the woman’s most recent menstrual cycle.

• Wisconsin Gov. Walker last weekend signed a new state budget that eliminated $1 million in federal family-planning funds from Planned Parenthood. There are 29 Planned Parenthood clinics in the Badger State. Of those, three clinics provide surgical and medical abortions. Two clinics, in West Allis and Madison, offer colposcopy services, a method of examining the cervix in the event of an abnormal Pap smear.

• Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to sign a recently passed bill that would convert Texas’ Medicaid program into a block grant, allowing it to defund abortion providers — in other words, Planned Parenthood. The new law would take away approximately $37 million from Planned Parenthood, which was already reduced from $111 million in the state’s 2012 budget, according to the New York Daily News. There are 84 Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas, of which 13 provide abortions.