Late last week, prosecutors dropped the remaining criminal charges against the Planned Parenthood abortion business in Kansas, which stands accused of violating state abortion laws.
All of the charges against a Planned Parenthood abortion business have been dropped after one of the most politically biased cases pro-life groups say they can remember. The case was embroiled in controversy after it was found documents critical to it were destroyed during the administration of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Earlier this month, a Kansas judge dismissed dozens of misdemeanor charges alleging that the abortion business failed to test whether an unborn child was viable (as required by state law) before doing a late-term abortion, and that it manipulated records it submitted to the state to cover up those crimes. Planned Parenthood filed motions seeking to dismiss the criminal case involving 58 counts related to illegal late-term abortions. It wanted all charges dropped and Judge Stephen Tatum dismissed them all.
Prosecutors announced Friday they are dismissing the rest of the charges as Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt made the joint decision about dropping the final 32 charges.
Today, Operation Rescue says new documents obtained via the Kansas Open Records Act requests prove that records crucial to the criminal prosecution of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood (CHPP) of Overland Park that were said to have been destroyed during the Sebelius administration currently exist and were placed under seal in the custody of the Shawnee County Clerk of the Court by Judge Richard Anderson on January 12, 2012.
Documents also obtained from the office of Judge Anderson indicate that there was never any formal inquiry about the records from the Planned Parenthood case prosecutor, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe, or from Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor, who was tasked in November, 2011, with determining who was responsible for the destruction of the supposed final copy of the records that were the basis for 49 out of 107 total criminal charges against Planned Parenthood, including 28 felonies.
“We call on Howe and others involved to immediately resign and we call for an independent investigation into this conspiracy to obstruct justice,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “This is corruption, plain and simple.”
Newman said the documents provide evidence that proves that the 49 charges dismissed in November, 2011, at the request of Howe were dropped under false pretenses two months before Anderson moved and sealed the remaining records. It further indicates the possibly the dismissal was the result of a wide-spread criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Newman said the existence of the records proves that Howe lied to protect Planned Parenthood and persuade Judge Steven Tatum to dismiss the felony charges pending against them. It implicates a former governor, state supreme court justices, three Attorneys General, and two District Attorneys in a plot with Planned Parenthood to destroy evidence along with the criminal case to protect the $300 million of Federal tax grants received by Planned Parenthood organizations each year under the condition that they obey the law.
He said the documents also show that the ethics charge against former Attorney General Phill Kline, who filed the criminal case against Planned Parenthood during his tenure as Johnson County District Attorney was based on false statements and was politically motivated to protect Planned Parenthood from prosecution and ensure that the case against them was discredited and the evidence destroyed.
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Operation Rescue has released an account with links to all documents that it say shows that the records OR staffer Cheryl Sullenger received from Anderson prove that the evidence has existed all along in the custody of Judge Anderson and that neither Howe nor Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor, who was tasked with investigating the evidence destruction, ever bothered to make a formal request for the records or verify their existence.
