Kansas Sexual Abuse-Abortion Probe Will Continue New AG Claims 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 9, 2006
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — Kansas voters defeated pro-life state Attorney General Phill Kline on Tuesday and replaced him with abortion advocate Paul Morrison. However, Morrison claimed Thursday that he will continue the probe Kline started into whether two abortion businesses did illegal late-term abortions or covered up cases of statutory rape.
Morrison, who defeated Kline 58-42, said the investigation would get the "attention it deserves," according to a Topeka Capital Journal newspaper report.
Morrison strongly criticized Kline for supposedly wasting state resources in the investigation during the campaign and at one point indicated he would pull the plug on it.
During a press conference, Morrison said he hoped Kline wouldn’t file any charges in the case between now and when he takes over as attorney general in January.
"I do hope that he will not file the cases," Morrison said. "That is an open case now, and I have an obligation to look at all the cases up there, which we will do. We will give that the attention it deserves with an eye, obviously, on how important it is to protect peoples’ privacy."
Jones, a spokeswoman for Kline, told the newspaper "The investigation itself is moving forward. We can’t tell you when or if charges will be filed."
She said Kline would continue to do his job despite Morrison’s plea otherwise.
"It would not serve Kansans well to stop doing business for two months. And Mr. Morrison should realize that as Johnson County district attorney. He’s not going to stop his prosecutors from forwarding their cases," she said.
Jones complained that Morrison and pro-abortion groups spent $4 million to defeat Kline and prevent the investigation from continuing. A spokesperson for NARAL confirmed that the group sent Morrison volunteers to help him win his campaign.
The two abortion centers, a Planned Parenthood business in Ooverland Park and the abortion facility run by late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, filed lawsuits preventing Kline form getting 90 abortion records but a court sided with Kline.
Their lawyers have asked the state Supreme Court to seize the records from Kline’s office because they’re upset he discussed them with Fox News program host Bill O’Reilly.
During the program, O’Reilly announced that an unidentified source provided Fox News with documents showing the abortions were done at the abortion centers because the women involved complained about "temporary depression."
"Our information says that on almost every medical sheet — and obviously we have a source inside here — it says, ‘depression,‘" O‘Reilly told Kline during the broadcast. "I don‘t know whether you have that information or not — I don‘t know — but that‘s what it says."
That would make them illegal.
According to state law, abortions done after the baby’s viability are only allowed in cases to protect the life of the mother or if continuing the pregnancy would cause "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."
The attorneys reportedly asked the state’s high court to appoint a special prosecutor to determine if O’Reilly got the information for his statement from the records Kline received.
Jones told the Associated Press she doesn’t know how O’Reilly got his information and insisted Kline has not shared confidential files with him. Jones called the move "a political ploy."
David Tabacoff, executive producer of "The O’Reilly Factor," told AP in a statement that it stands by the story.
During the program, Kline told O’Reilly that the records showed some of the late-term abortions were done in violation of Kansas law.
He also said he needed the records because he can’t prosecute the cases of statutory rape without them.
"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.
In 2003 alone, 78 girls under the age of 15 had abortions in Kansas, making it appear the abortion centers covered up cases of statutory abuse by doing abortions on young girls.
Tiller decline to appear on the show but has called for an investigation of Kline and O’Reilly, especially into the television news host’s inside source.
