Attorneys for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri dropped a lawsuit last week challenging the constitutionality of a requirement that abortion providers in Kansas have a link on their websites’ home pages to state anti-abortion materials.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2013 in federal court, claimed a requirement that doctors inform people seeking abortions that they are ending the life of a “whole, separate, unique, living human being,” by linking to the state materials, violated doctors’ free speech rights.

The requirement was part of HB 2253, a massive anti-choice omnibus bill that also bans abortions based on gender, bars employees of institutions that perform abortions from providing sexual education materials to public schools, seeks to block all direct or indirect tax incentives for the procedure, and revises the state’s informed consent materials given to those considering an abortion to include false and misleading information about a link between the procedure and breast cancer.

The bill also defines human life as beginning “at fertilization.”

Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit alleged that stating an abortion terminates the life of a separate human being requires doctors to make “a misleading statement of philosophical and/or religious belief” in violation of the First Amendment.

The lawsuit also challenged a provision of the law that requires its website to link to a Kansas Department of Health and Environment site on abortion and fetal development and challenged a requirement that abortion patients receive information that a fetus can feel pain 20 weeks after fertilization.

Planned Parenthood argued that by forcing clinics to link to the department’s website, it is required to endorse the health department’s message in violation of the First Amendment.

As a result of the dismissal, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri’s website home page now contains the required link and mandated language, but with a disclaimer in all caps ahead of it that reads, “We are required by the State of Kansas to state the following, which does not necessarily reflect current medical opinion or that of comprehensive health.”

The mandated text and link appear after the disclaimer.

“The Kansas Department of Health and Environment maintains a website containing information about the development of the unborn child, as well as video of sonogram images of the unborn child at various stages of development. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s website can be reached by clicking here.” www.womansrighttoknow.org.

The one-page order dismissing Planned Parenthood’s claim states only that the counsel for the parties notified the court that the matter had been resolved.

Attorneys for Planned Parenthood dismissed without prejudice, which means they could re-file their claims at a later date. The case was scheduled for trial this week.