Abortions may cease in Kansas on Friday due to new rules

KANSAS CITY, Kan (Reuters) - Kansas could become the only U.S. state without a clinic offering abortions on Friday if rules imposing stricter operating regulations on clinics go into effect.

Existing clinics have "failed to meet minimum health and safety standards" contained in a new state law regulating abortion services, Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said in a statement.

Kansas has three clinics that provide abortions, all in the Kansas City metropolitan area, and one of them has filed a federal lawsuit to block the state from enforcing the new law.

In the suit, father-daughter physicians Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser said they have provided safe abortions at the Center for Women's Health for years but could not meet what they described as "burdensome and inappropriate requirements" of the new law on short notice.

The law is due to come into effect as a number of states have enacted legislation to restrict abortion, including bans on late term abortions or moves to cut state funds to health providers that perform the procedure.

Such bills were able to pass this year after the November 2010 elections ushered in Republican majorities to several states.

In Kansas, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri would also have to suspend abortion services on Friday, even though its president, Peter Brownlie, said all regulations had been met.

"We are trying to get it resolved," Brownlie said on Wednesday. "I expect that if we are not licensed by July 1 we will be in court."

A lawyer representing the third Kansas abortion clinic, Aid for Women, was exploring a lawsuit on Wednesday, an aide said.

The new law sets minimum sizes for surgery and recovery rooms, has room temperature range parameters for each room, and sets broader equipment and staffing rules. It also requires doctors to have hospital privileges within 30 miles of the clinic, among other requirements.

Moser said the state must make sure all 800 health care facilities in Kansas provide the highest standard of care.

"As a physician, I will see that patient safety continues to be our top priority," Moser said.

Kansas has stepped up its abortion regulations since former U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican, became governor this year. Spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag had no comment on Wednesday on clinic closures except to note that Brownback "signed the bill into law" and supports it.

Kansas health department spokeswoman Miranda Myrick said the department had no comment on the lawsuit and was working with clinics to take corrective action to satisfy the law. Follow-up inspections will be made where appropriate, she said.

(Writing and reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Cynthia Johnston)