Newswire

Tiller subpoenaed in Texas investigation

By John Hanna / The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Texas authorities have subpoenaed Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline said Tuesday the case involves a 19-year-old woman who was treated at Tiller's clinic and later died.

A spokesman for the Texas attorney general's office said it is not investigating the woman's death but events in Texas before she went to Kansas.

Kline described Tiller as a potential witness for the investigation. Tiller's attorneys said Texas authorities want to examine medical records and other unspecified items - and that the doctor would comply. His attorneys did not say what the case involves, including whether it involves a patient at his clinic.

Tiller's attorneys described the subpoena as routine and said the Texas investigation is not directed at the doctor.

"Other medical facilities in Wichita have received similar subpoenas from the state of Texas in this investigation," they said in a statement. "We see no reason that Dr. Tiller's appearance will be required in any court regarding the records."

Tiller's clinic, Women Health Care Services, is under scrutiny because anti-abortion groups have reported that the woman died on or about Jan. 13. On Monday, Kansans for Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group, released a document confirming that the Kansas Board of Healing Arts has initiated an investigation.

Kline said during a news conference Tuesday that the 19-year-old woman, a Texas resident, received services at Tiller's clinic earlier this year and later died. He said the woman was developmentally disabled but would not discuss the circumstances of her death or what services Tiller's clinic provided.

Kline stressed that Tiller himself is not facing a criminal inquiry and said the doctor was subpoenaed as someone who may have evidence significant to the Texas investigation.

Kline acknowledged his statements during the news conference suggested Texas officials were investigating the woman's death, but he later said, "I do not mean to infer that."

"It probably could have been worded more delicately," Kline said. "I just didn't want to get into the details of what Texas is doing."

Spokesman Ben Taylor said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Kline's office are cooperating, but that there had been a misunderstanding about the scope of Texas' investigation.

"Our investigation centers on events that may have happened in Texas," Taylor said. "We are not investigating the woman's death."

Taylor declined to discuss his office's inquiry further, noting that the investigation is ongoing.

For more than a decade, Tiller's clinic has been the target of anti-abortion protests because the doctor performs late-term abortions. The first report of the woman's death came from Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group.

---

On the Net:

Kansas attorney general's office: http://www.accesskansas.org/ksag

Texas attorney general's office: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/index.shtml

Kansas Board of Healing Arts: http://www.ksbha.org

Tiller's clinic: http://www.drtiller.com


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kan
sascity/news/local/10965016.htm?1c

Posted by Editor at February 23, 2005 08:55 AM