Kansas Pro-Life Group Wants Pro-Abortion Attorney to Retract Remarks

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 25, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Kansas Pro-Life Group Wants Pro-Abortion Attorney to Retract Remarks Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 25,
2007

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — A pro-life group in Kansas wants the attorney for infamous late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller to apologize. Operation Rescue accuses Lee Thompson of making potentially slanderous comments to the media by referring to the efforts it has conducted to hold Tiller accountable for potentially illegal actions as "vigilantism."

Attorney General Paul Morrison has filed charges accusing Tiller of breaking the state’s late-term abortion laws but pro-life advocates say there are many more violations.

As a result, the pro-life organization has been helping Kansans for Life gather petitions to invoke a law allowing citizens to petition for a grand jury probe.

Tiller’s attorneys filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court to try to overturn the impaneling of the grand jury.

In filing the legal papers, Thompson made remarks to the Associated Press that OR considers disparaging.

“This is a proceeding brought for harassment and in bad faith by the petition gatherers,” he said. “You approach the level of vigilantism, and I think we see that happening in this instance.”

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman provided LifeNews.com the content of a letter he wrote to Thompson.

"This comment is nothing more than a vicious attack and patently false accusation against the integrity of the over 7,000 registered voters of Sedgwick County who exercised their citizenship by calling for the grand jury investigation," Newman says.

"Vigilantism is when the people take the laws into their own hands. In this case, the people are working within the law to bring justice," Newman adds.

Newman’s letter says that, because Tiller has been charged in the past 10 months with a total of 49 criminal acts based on a few medical records from 2003, it is reasonable to suspect that similar activity continued over the ensuing years.

"Because of this, the citizens of Sedgwick County who signed the grand jury petition demanding further investigation of your client not only acted in good faith, but appropriately and necessarily discharged their duty as citizens," Newman says.

"You owe us all an apology," the letter concludes.