Kansas Only Recently Received Reimbursement for Sebelius Abortion Dinner
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 2, 2008
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — The office of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius admitted on Monday that the state only recently received a reimbursement for a dinner involving the governor and a late-term abortion practitioner. Sebelius reportedly invited George Tiller and his abortion center staff for a party at Cedar Crest, the governor’s mansion.
It also appears an open records request from pro-life advocates tipped off state officials and abortion advocates that the law had not been followed.
Operation Rescue told LifeNews.com that it obtained produced pictures of the event appearing to show Sebelius with Tiller.l
The pro-life group said the lavish April 2007 event came at a time when Tiller was under investigation by the attorney general’s office.
Sebelius defended her involvement at the dinner and claimed Tiller purchased the dinner at a fundraising event for the pro-abortion political group known as the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus in September 2005.
Because the April 9, 2007 reception was a political event, the organization was required to reimburse the state for the food involved.
However, the Kansas City Star indicated Monday that the pro-abortion group didn’t reimburse the state until two weeks ago — on May 23. The $848 check for the costs didn’t get to the governor’s office until Sebelius’ staff realized the error.
Sebelius’ spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran sent a written explanation to the newspaper.
"Once our office started looking into records surrounding this auction reception it was determined that the policy in place for reimbursement on political events was not followed due to staff turnover and the length of time between the purchase of the auction item (September, 2005) and the date the reception was scheduled (April, 2007)," she wrote.
"After we verified the amount of funds the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus still owed the state, we contacted their organization and they issued a check to reimburse the funds," Corcoran added.
Corcoran told the Star that the governor’s office hasn’t found any other events with this problem.
Mary Kay Culp, the director of Kansans for Life, urged the Kansas media to join pro-life groups in trying to get to the bottom of the story.
"The key to knowing how deep these lies go is the date of the first open records request on this event which the press says was well before May 23," she explained.
Culp told LifeNews.com she thinks the open records request tipped off both Sebelius’ staff and the pro-abortion group that an outcry was forthcoming.
"The fact that this bill … was paid 5 days prior to the pictures becoming public means not that they realized it on their own. It simply means that the open records request made prior to that, tipped them off," she explained.
"This just keeps getting murkier and murkier and needs to be investigated fully," Culp concluded.
Related web sites:
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
