Kansas Planned Parenthood Files Subpoena Against Kline for Abortion Records

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 10, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Kansas Planned Parenthood Files Subpoena Against Kline for Abortion Records

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 10
, 2008

Overland Park, KS (LifeNews.com) — A Kansas Planned Parenthood abortion business that is under investigation for allegedly doing illegal abortions and falsifying medical records is taking another shot at Phill Kline. It wants to prevent the Johnson County District Attorney from keeping its abortion records after his term expires next month.

Kline filed 107 charges against the abortion business for allegedly violating state law.

Planned Parenthood has been trying to get back copies of the abortion records Kline obtained as the state’s attorney general and an attorney fired the latest salvo today.

Its lawyer Pedro Irigonegaray issued a subpoena on Tuesday that Kline received today and he says he wants to prevent Kline from keeping the records after he leaves the district attorney’s office on January 12.

The subpoena follows a decision by the Kansas Supreme Court last week that asked Kline to send copies of the abortion records to the state attorney general, who already has them.

Two judges have determined that the files show "probable cause" that the abortion business violated state abortion laws and falsified medical records. Kline legally received the records during his investigation of Planned Parenthood and transferred them to his new office when he became the county attorney.

The high court asked Kline to give copies of the records to Attorney General Steve Six by December 12.

Kline told LifeNews.com after the ruling, "I am pleased that the prosecution may move forward and I must mention as a matter of ethics, that Planned Parenthood is presumed innocent as a matter of law."

Though the mainstream media misreported the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision, pro-life groups told LifeNews.com that the good news for the pro-life community is that the case against Planned Parenthood moves ahead.

Mary Kay Culp, the director of Kansans for Life, tells LifeNews.com that the decision is a victory of sorts for Kline and the investigation.

"We welcome today’s Kansas Supreme Court decision. Beyond the spin, remains the fact that Kline was upheld, as the decision only requires him to give copies of his copies to the Attorney General, and explain the case to him," Culp said. "Judge Anderson retains the originals and the Supreme Court’s earlier indefensible suppression of him as a witness must end."

She said the Kansas Supreme Court was also right to deny Planned Parenthood’s petition for contempt proceedings against Kline.

In January, Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson, who originally validated Kline’s access to the files, testified he had reason to believe documents filed by Planned Parenthood with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had been falsified before Kline’s investigation while he was attorney general.

The records showed, according to Anderson, that the age of the babies involved in the abortions had been altered to hide the fact that Planned Parenthood was engaging in illegal late-term abortions.

Kline has also said Planned Parenthood engaged in a felony by making copies of state health department abortion reports that it failed to keep on file as required by law.

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