Kansas’ New Attorney General Morrison Will Fire Abortion Prosecutor

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 8, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Kansas’ New Attorney General Morrison Will Fire Abortion Prosecutor Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 8
, 2007

Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — Paul Morrison was sworn in as the new state Attorney General in Kansas on Monday morning and minutes later he waded into the debate over an abortion investigation. Morrison says he’s worried about the security of files previous attorney general Phill Kline obtained allegedly showing illegal late-term abortions.

Morrison said he will fire Don McKinney, the special prosecutor Kline assigned to the case but he’s worried that McKinney still has some of the records.

"There is no doubt about the fact that we’re going to get rid of Mr. McKinney,” Morrison said, adding he expected that to occur later in the week. “I’m going to revoke his powers as special prosecutor because I do not view him as being even remotely independent or remotely objective to view that."

About the records, Morrison said, “I do have concerns about how many copies have been made of that material and who’s got possession of them," according to the Lawrence Journal World newspaper.

Kline had alleged that Wichita-based late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller had performed 14 illegal abortions in 2003 on girls as young as ten and women as old as 22 years of age.

Tiller, who has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars made from his abortion business to defeat Kline, escaped prosecution in the January 2005 abortion death of Cristin Gilbert, a mentally disabled 19 year-old girl from Texas.

Some document allegedly showed that Tiller did the abortions on women who listed "depression" as the reason for the abortion rather than the legitimate medical reasons the state requires for them to be legal.

Morrison claimed in comments reported on by AP that he will honestly examine Kiline’s case to see if it has enough merit to continue.

"We will give those allegations a really good review, and I‘m going to use my independent judgment on it," Morrison said.

He also claimed he would prosecute cases of illegal abortions, if he finds any.

“If there are illegal abortions taking place in this state in violation of state law, I will enforce them. I’m very used to doing that and comfortable in doing that," he said.

Meanwhile, Kline was officially sworn in at the Johnson County Administration Building in downtown Olathe as the new county attorney — replacing Morrison.