The Kansas Attorney General’s office was previously under the control of an anti-choice activist. Years of useless, persecutory witch hunts resulting in not only wasted tax dollars but absolute violations of privacy. The former AG is still in a position to prolong his ideological abuse of power with his current position as the District Attorney of Johnson County Kansas.
Elected into office in 2002, Kline set out to make teen sex with age-mates illegal and put patient medical records on trial. In 2006 a judge ruled against Kline’s obscure opinion on a practitioner’s duty to report sexual activities of persons younger than the age of 16:
“The state has a strong interest in protecting minors and promoting public health,” wrote Judge J. Thomas Marten in his opinion. “But … the Attorney General’s Opinion goes beyond the scope of the reporting statute, potentially criminalizing the decisions health care providers make in utmost good faith, and solely with the physical and emotional health of their patients in mind. The Attorney General’s over-expansive interpretation of the reporting statute not only fails to serve the public interest, it actually serves to undermine it by causing minors to avoid seeking medical services and potentially overburdening SRS [the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services].”
It is common for abortion opponents to tug on the heart strings of the public with reports of abortion providers protecting child rapists and abusers all for the sake of a buck. In an interview in 2005 Kline made his appeal to protect the children of Kansas in an interview for the program NOW on PBS:
ATTORNEY GENERAL PHILL KLINE: Virtually every year in Kansas, we have between 70 and 80 children who receive abortion services. Now in Kansas law, they’ve been raped.
He goes on to say:
ATTORNEY GENERAL KLINE: For example, when the 11-year-old is in the abortion clinic saying, “Please don’t tell anybody, it was my 13-year-old boyfriend and we made a mistake,” the 27-year-old stepfather’s out in the car having told her to say that or she won’t come home. We have the ability to determine what truly happened and to decide whether we need to act in the best interest of that child.
Under the umbrella of prosecuting child abuse Kline sought records from Planned Parenthood and Dr. Tiller’s clinic Women’s Health Services. Kansas, like most states, already required practitioners to report suspected abuse. Kline using his interpretation of any person under the age of 16 having an abortion was a rape or assault victim and the abortion providers failed to report the crimes. The records that he subpoenaed were only from abortion clinics, and not a single live birth recorded at the hospital. In fact, the records that he did receive had patient identifying information removed, therefore making it unlikely for him to investigate a crime of abuse rather than his concern over crimes committed by the medical providers.
The ruling delivered in 2006 negated his assessment and he was forced to find other fault. In his last days in office, the Attorney General filed charges against Dr. Tiller’s clinic alleging illegal abortions performed past 22 weeks because he disagreed with professional diagnoses. Although, according to Kansas law, abortions performed after 22 weeks are legal if continuation of pregnancy would cause physical or mental substantial and irreversible harm.
In an independent investigation by the Sedgwick County district attorney’s office, charges were dismissed:
District Attorney Nola Foulston has completed review of documents, including medical records and reports, filed with the original complaint and information submitted to the court in the dismissed criminal action commenced by then Attorney General Phill Kline on December 21, 2006. The charges as alleged in Kline’s document claimed thirty (30) violations of Kansas law. The charges against Dr. George Tiller were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds on December 22, 2006. Kline made no claim that Tiller failed to report instances of child sexual assault as required by the Kansas Mandatory Reporting Act which left the issue unresolved. District Attorney Nola Foulston commenced an independent investigation to determine if the allegations of child sexual abuse were properly reported and acted upon in the jurisdictions where the victims resided.
In the case of the 10 year old victim, it was indeed reported to the proper authorities, in addition the clinic provided prosecutors with fetal tissue to aid in DNA evidence and a conviction was obtained.
The newly elected AG Paul Morrison has filed what he calls technicality charges against Dr. Tiller, in fact from what I understand the “financial” ties to the other doctor was a vehicle.
Unsatisfied with the lack of results in his tenure, Kline made copies of the medical records to use in his new position as Johnson County District Attorney:
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri filed the lawsuit in June with the Kansas Supreme Court. The group’s target is former Attorney General Phill Kline, who’s now the Johnson County district attorney. Planned Parenthood’s clinic is in Overland Park, within Kline’s jurisdiction.
Morrison has warned Planned Parenthood that Kline has patient records from the clinic that he obtained while attorney general. Morrison also has said his review of Kline’s evidence showed no wrongdoing by the clinic or its doctors.
Morrison filed his request to intervene Wednesday. Like other documents in the case, the court has closed it to public scrutiny, although a list of what’s been filed remains public. Spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett declined to discuss the details of Morrison’s request.
First it was his interpretation of consensual sex among minors, then unreported abuse, and finally his analysis of medical conditions. In four years Kline was only able to demonstrate that with the exception of minor technicalities, abortion providers adhere to nothing but the law. It is not difficult to see that any undocumented abuse in these circumstances are that of an elected official using his position to further his anti-choice agenda. You really can’t buy that kind of press.
cross-posted at Sassywho