"Legislators rejected a piece of Brownback's proposed budget calling for a $15 million reduction in state aid for mental health assistance. He offered the cut during his first month as governor to mirror a campaign platform dedicated to shrinking state government's footprint -- despite mounting evidence of problems among Kansans struggling through a volatile recession."Since that time last year, he and many of the appointees loaded onto the taxpayers' backs have attacked all manner of social services, including mental health.
Vicki Stangl, a lecturer in the Political Science department at Wichita University wrote a most detailed and accurate 15 point description at the Kansas Free Press headlined "Why the Citizens of Kansas Oppose Brownback" last August.
And as a reminder to readers I must ask: Did the famous, path breaking Menninger Institute once based in Topeka leave several years ago for Houston, TX from similar government disdain for anything mental health, unless it is wrapped in "Christian" psychology?
The board's attorneys at great expense flew in a Georgetown expert witness to discredit Neuhaus' mental health evaluations of patients wanting late-term abortions from Dr. George Tiller. An expert witness who "could not imagine any" psychological reasons warranting a woman to have an abortion.
Our Dear Old Topeka Capital Journal daily newspaper missed the one where her attorney Bob Eye speaks out:
"The board's top litigation attorney filed the complaint in April 2010, but it stems from a complaint lodged with the board in 2006 by Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy adviser for the Wichita-based anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. Sullenger receives notices from the board about the case.
AP writer John Hanna's numerous articles missed the fact that Sullenger did two years in federal prison for conspiring with others to bomb abortion clinics in California.Robert Eye, lead attorney for Neuhaus, said he believes evidence in the case is 'solid' in showing that the doctor met standards of care in conducting the exams. Eye said he respects the board's need to regulate doctors to protect the public and its need to investigate complaints of potential misconduct, but he also suggested Sullenger's complaint was driven by her views on abortion.
'The fact that this complaint was brought to the board by an anti-choice group and not by any patient Dr. Neuhaus has ever evaluated is pretty significant,' Eye said during an interview. 'Dr. Neuhaus evaluated hundreds of patients for Dr. Tiller, none of whom complained. For many of these patients, their parents or guardians were in the room.'"
However there is some hope from the news filters out of nearby Lawrence, Kansas City and even cable network MSNBC which all picked up Hanna's single revealing piece with the lengthy quote from her attorney, but not Dear Old Topeka.
Check out those comments, too!
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