Kansas Pro-Life Group Has Signatures for Abortion-Grand Jury Probe 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 22, 2007
Overland Park, KS (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life advocates in Kansas say they have obtained enough signatures in the eastern part of the state to call a grand jury to investigate the Planned Parenthood abortion business that operates just outside Kansas City. They say the abortion business has violated the law repeatedly when it comes to abortion.
Groups behind the effort needed to collect 3,863 signatures from registered voters in Johnson County to use an obscure state law that allows citizens to petition a grand jury to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing.
"There’s been way too much controversy surrounding that big abortion clinic up there in Johnson County for way too long," Troy Newman of Operation Rescue told AP. "I say where there is smoke there is fire, and this place is brimming with smoke."
His group is spearheading the effort along with Kansans for Life and Women Influencing the Nation.
However, Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, tells AP that Newman is the one blowing smoke.
"What we have are people who repeat the same falsehoods on the hope that if you say it enough times people will believe it," he said.
Attorney General Paul Morrison, who backs abortion, recently cleared the abortion business of any wrongdoing in connection with supposedly doing illegal late-term abortions.
However, that didn’t stop pro-life advocates from launching the campaign or Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline from filing charges against Planned Parenthood.
Last week, Kline, the former state attorney general, filed over 100 criminal charges against the abortion center.
The 107 counts include 23 felonies and 84 misdemeanors and they include 29 misdemeanor counts of doing illegal late-term abortions.
The complaints also allege that the Planned Parenthood facility failed to maintain proper records, falsified information, and did not follow laws about determining viability.
A hearing is slated to take place on the charges on November 16.
In their petition drive, the groups say the Planned Parenthood abortion business failed to report suspected child abuse and suspected child sexual abuse, failed to comply with state laws requiring parental notification and a 24-hour waiting period, and failed to follow the standard of care in providing medical advice or failure to conduct medical procedures as required by Kansas statute.
