Sunday, May 21st, 2006
We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto…oh, wait…
According to CNN’s web site, Kansas’ Attorney General Phill Kline obtained permission last October from state District Judge Richard Anderson to plumb the medical records and sexual histories of abortion clinic patients who are either under 16 or who had abortions after 22 weeks (which is illegal in Kansas). Two of the clinics involved are appealing to the state supreme court in an effort to block this apparent fishing expedition - a tactic that has already been tried by former U.S. Attorney General John "Lost to a Dead Man" Ashcroft. The new spin line that Kline is trotting out is that this intrusion into women’s medical privacy is necessary to "prosecute child rape and other crimes in order to protect Kansas children."
Question: If Kline is being true to his word, why isn’t he pursuing less intrusive methods to get the same job done? For that matter, why isn’t he pushing law enforcement to be more responsive to reports of statutory rape?
Follow-up: If Kline, who according to the state’s Attorney General web site is a member of the Republican Attorneys General Association, has ulterior motives, how long will it be before he leaks the names and locations of the clinics in question to terrorist organizations such as the Army of God and Operation Rescue, if he hasn’t already?
Note: In the time since I originally posted this, the CNN link has gone dead. However, thanks to The News Blog, I found a New York Times link to the story (registration required to read).
(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Feb. 25, 2005 10:53 AM)
