Kansas Supreme Court Unseals Retribution Lawsuit by Planned Parenthood
Email this article
Printer friendly page
RSS Newsfeed
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 2, 2008
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday unsealed a lawsuit a Planned Parenthood abortion business filed against a local prosecutor in retribution for charges the district attorney filed. Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline has filed over 100 charges against Planned Parenthood.
The Kansas official is accusing the abortion center of violating state abortion laws, falsifying medical records and other violations.
Planned Parenthood filed a suit against Kline in response, claiming the prosecutor was engaging in harassment against it.
Part of the lawsuit involves a request from Planned Parenthood for Kline to return 30 edited medical files he received as the state attorney general when he first brought the charges against it.
The charges he filed in October against Planned Parenthood come as a result of the revelations of possible illegal activities the medical files showed.
The high court rejected a letter from former Attorney General Paul Morrison saying Planned Parenthood wasn’t guilty and claiming the records showed no criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Steve Six has filed his own suit seeking to compel Kline to return the files to Planned Parenthood. The state’s high court has slated arguments for both cases on June 12 and it will hear a request from Kline to dismiss both suits.
Kline told the Associated Press on Friday that Planned Parenthood has been going out of its way to try to prevent him from investigating and prosecuting allegations its abortion business broke the law.
“This was harassment,” he said of the Planned Parenthood lawsuit. “It’s a criminal defendant suing a prosecutor personally.”
Mary Kay Culp of Kansans for Life also responded to the news saying that it was a huge victory and showed that Morrison obstructed justice.
"The files unsealed today will show that last year while Governor Sebelius celebrated her May birthday at a fundraiser thrown for her by Planned Parenthood, her then-AG Paul Morrison was busy obstructing justice in an attempt to protect the party-givers from prosecution," she told LifeNews.com.
When Kline was the attorney general, he obtained abortion records from Planned Parenthood and George Tiller’s abortion business in Wichita.
Those records, which a court gave Kline access to when he was investigating possible illegal late-term abortions, were later discussed in public by media outlets and a top psychologist and Planned Parenthood wants them returned.
Kline is now the Johnson County District Attorney and Planned Parenthood’s Overland Park abortion center is within his jurisdiction. He forwarded copies of the abortion records to his new office shortly before leaving the attorney post.
The abortion business filed the lawsuit in June, 2007.
State law says the abortions can only be done in legitimate medical circumstances, but Kline found that all of the abortions in the charges were done for specious reasons such as depression during pregnancy.
