Kansas Abortion Business Shreds Documents Prior to Court Case
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 6, 2005
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — Just days before it is scheduled to head to court in a case related to its refusal to help in a state abortion-statutory rape investigation, a Wichita abortion business was found shredding hundreds of documents behind its facility.
Local pro-life advocates say the documents were shredded Friday behind Women’s Health Care Services, the abortion business operated by notorious late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.
The Kansas Supreme Court has set a September 8 hearing on Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline’s request for abortion records from that abortion center and a Planned Parenthood facility. Kline needs the files to help determine if girls who were victims of statutory rape received abortions.
According to local pro-life advocate Karen Myers, two large trucks from Security Shredding & Recycling parked in the abortion facility’s parking lot while employees brought out what appeared to be numerous boxes of medical records.
Myers said that, when asked about the shredding, Tiller security guard Carl Sweeney flippantly replied, "Everybody’s got to clean house."
The shredding took place just one day after attorney’s for the two abortion businesses filed court papers accusing Kline of contempt of court for allegedly violating a gag order when giving interviews about the case. Kline says he has not discussed any sensitive details about the case and had kept the case confidential until a court opened up court files for public record.
Myers says this is the second week in which Tiller’s abortion facility has been seen shredding documents.
Last week, red bags marked "infectious waste" were dumped in the clinic’s dumpsters, in what Myers said is an apparent violation of medical waste disposal laws. Police were summoned and discovered that the bags contained "shredded documents."
"We didn’t think much of it until Friday when the industrial shredders showed up," said Karen Myers, who had reported the infectious waste incident to police.
Kline needs the records of 90 women and girls who had abortions to determine if they were victims of statutory rape and to learn whether or not the abortion facilities were performing illegal late-term abortions.
Some 29 of the women and girls had abortions at Comprehensive Health, operated by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri while the rest had abortions in Wichita.
"Child rape is a serious crime, and when a 10-year-old is pregnant, she has been raped under Kansas law," Kline has said. "As the state’s chief law enforcement official, I have a duty to investigate in order to protect Kansas children."
Kansas law requires medical personnel to report suspicions of statutory rape to authorities and bans abortions conducted after 22 weeks of pregnancy unless there is a serious health threat for the mother.
In 2004, 79 girls under the age of 15 had abortions in Kansas.
Last year a Shawnee County judge issued subpoenas for the records, but the abortion businesses have asked the state Supreme Court to overturn that decision.
Related web sites:
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
Kansas Supreme Court – https://www.kscourts.org
Attorney General’s office – https://www.ksag.org
