Abortion Records Case Nears Court
Sep. 2–TOPEKA — Next week, Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline will take his request for medical records of women and girls who received abortions to the state’s highest court.
This week, those on both sides of the debate ramped up their arguments for why Kline is either safeguarding women against predators or seeking to score political points by violating private medical records.
Kline is seeking the medical records of 90 women and girls who received abortions at the Comprehensive Health clinic in Overland Park and the Women’s Health Care clinic in Wichita.
He argues that the records — which contain names, addresses and medical and sexual histories — will help him go after child rapists and clinics that provide illegal late-term abortions. At Kline’s request, a Shawnee County judge issued subpoenas for the records last year.
Kline’s investigation began a year ago but was secret until last spring, when the clinics asked the state Supreme Court to intervene. The court lifted a gag order it had imposed and stayed subpoenas for the records.
Oral arguments are set for Thursday. Kline will make his case, and Wichita lawyer Lee Thompson, a former U.S. attorney, will speak on behalf of the clinics. There is no timetable for a ruling in the case.
Twenty-nine of the patients received abortions at Comprehensive Health, operated by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The 61 others received abortions at Women’s Health Care. Two-thirds of the patients are adult women, leading clinic officials to say that the investigation is more focused on abortion than on child predators.
Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said the clinics would submit redacted versions of the files if Kline would give his reasons for thinking that clinics are providing illegal abortions or covering up child abuse.
“Investigate us, not our patients,” Brownlie said.
Abortion opponents held two news conferences Thursday to counter Planned Parenthood. At one, Kansas Rep. Mary Pilcher Cook, a Shawnee Republican, accused abortion providers of hiding evidence of child sexual assault.
“Planned Parenthood makes money from abortions,” Cook said. “For all we know, they could be complicit.”
Kansas law requires medical providers to report suspicions of child molestation. The law also bans abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy if the fetus is viable, except when the pregnancy poses a serious health threat.
In 2004, 79 girls under 15 received abortions in Kansas, accounting for 0.7 percent of all abortions reported to the state. Clinics say they report all suspicions of child molestation and follow all restrictions on late-term abortions.
The clinics are also asking the court to find Kline in contempt of court for violating the former gag order by giving interviews, holding news conferences and appearing on national television news programs.
Kline has said he fought to keep details of the case private and spoke only to correct false statements about the investigation. On Thursday, his spokesman, Whitney Watson, said law enforcement is not required to show probable cause to those under subpoena.
“Law enforcement does not have to explain why it seeks information,” Watson said.
Brownlie said Kline seemed to be motivated by “an extreme anti-choice, anti-abortion agenda.”
Pilcher Cook, an abortion opponent, said she trusts that Kline’s motives are sincere and that he has reason to believe the medical records will lead to prosecutions.
But Brownlie said that the records were selected seemingly at random and that he doesn’t trust Kline’s motives.
—–
To see more of The Kansas City Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kansascity.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, The Kansas City Star, Mo.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.