Prosecutor investigating Planned Parenthood defeated

Prosecutor investigating Planned Parenthood defeated
Opponent had told newspaper child rape investigations would be dropped

A Republican state prosecutor who offended Planned Parenthood businesses by demanding that they provide medical records as part of his investigation of allegations of child rape and illegal late-term abortions has been defeated by an opponent who has promised to drop those cases.

Phill Kline took over as attorney general in Kansas in 2002 and just in the past few weeks confirmed he has obtained documents he said show possible evidence of child sexual assault, child rape, failing to report a child rape and late-term abortions – all crimes in the state.

But after he demanded the redacted records of 90 abortions from the state's abortion industry and his opponent, Democrat Paul Morrison, promised he would turn the office's investigations in another direction, Morrison was elected by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin.

Operation Rescue, one of the nation's leading pro-life Christian groups, watched the developments closely, and said Kline's investigation of abortion clinics for "the concealment of child rape and illegal late-term abortions" was the key to the race.

"Kansas has opted to continue the practice of looking the other way when innocent young girls are taken to abortion clinics by their rapists, who are looking to destroy the evidence of their crimes," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "It has also voted to ignore violations of Kansas law that bans post viability abortions."

Kline had cited the 2003 state statistic that there were 78 abortions on girls under the age of 15. In a state where the legal age of consent is 16, how could 78 girls become pregnant and obtain abortions without a single report of sexual assault, or rape, on a child, he wondered.

He went to court to obtain the records, and just recently announced they had been forwarded to him from a district court where identifying information about the procedures was removed.

He also just confirmed a few days ago, in an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, that the medical records indicate late-term abortions that were done for reasons that Kansas law doesn't allow.

According to state law, post-viability abortions are allowed only if the abortion is needed to save the woman's life, or the pregnancy would cause "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."

But Kline told O'Reilly the medical records for the 90 abortion cases now under review don't indicate that those exceptions were followed.

But Morrison had said during his campaign he would start a domestic violence unit, without any additional expense. "Some of the money that's been used on misplaced priorities could easily fund" the plans, he had told the Lawrence Journal-World.

He cited Kline's investigation of the abortion businesses run by George Tiller in Wichita and Planned Parenthood as an example.

Morrison also got a huge boost in his campaign when a non-profit organization that the newspaper linked to Tiller mailed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mailings critical of Kline.

The mailings called Kline "Snoop Dog" and were mailed by Kansans for Consumer Privacy Protection, said the newspaper, which noted that group had the same office address as ProKanDo, a political action committee Tiller started and is funding to elect pro-abortion candidates.

The clinics had fought releasing the medical records, and held a news conference to advise women the attorney general was seeking information about them. However, Kline never sought the women's identities, only the medical records of the procedures.

A judge had agreed with Kline, noting he couldn't realistically be expected to investigate allegations of crime without access to the records that could prove it.

"We thank Phill Kline for having the courage to stake his promising political career on the protection of the lives of the innocent. He stood up to the constant attacks, misrepresentations, and downright lies perpetuated by the opposing campaign and the Kansas media with grace and unwavering determination to stand for the truth," Newman said.

Kline just this week confirmed that those records were being reviewed by expert investigators, and could produce evidence of child rape, failure to report child rape, performing illegal late-term abortions, rape by force or fear, failure to report suspicion of child sexual abuse, incest, making false information and others. State law bans abortions after 22 weeks.

"My job is to enforce the law," Kline had told O'Reilly during his interview.

Kline told O'Reilly that to address the child rapes requires medical records, because other evidence generally isn't available.

"One of the first steps for a rapist when they have a child victim and the child is pregnant is to eradicate the evidence of the rape. It's an absurdity to argue that the privacy of a child, which has already been violated by a rapist, prohibits law enforcement from presenting evidence to a judge," he said.