Newswire

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline Clarifies Records Request

Kline: Names Not Needed In Abortion Probe

TOPEKA -- Attorney General Phill Kline said Thursday that his office does not need identifying information of the women whose abortion clinic medical records he is seeking.

But Kline continues to seek complete medical files — including identifying information, sexual history and mental health — so that a judge may review them as part of an investigation of abortion clinics and child predators. The difference is that Kline’s office doesn’t need all the identifying information itself.

Kline made the clarification in a motion filed with the Kansas Supreme Court on Thursday. The court is reviewing whether investigators should gain access to medical records of 90 women and girls who received late-term abortions at the Comprehensive Health clinic in Overland Park and the Women’s Health Care clinic in Wichita.

Kline says the records may contain evidence of crimes committed by predators or the clinics. Kline has said he is not investigating the women but whether the clinics performed illegal late-term abortions or failed to report evidence of child abuse, as well as evidence of child predators.

The clinics deny wrongdoing and maintain that Kline is engaging in a politically motivated attack on women’s privacy.

The clinics asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a Shawnee County judge issued subpoenas at Kline’s request. A ruling from the court is expected this fall.

Three-fourths of the records belong to women who were adults when they received the abortions. Kline said Thursday that since the women are not under investigation, his office does not need their identifying information such as names or addresses for the investigation.

But he said the Shawnee County judge who issued the subpoenas will need the identifying information because he — with help from a physician — will review the records and “cross-reference the files with records and evidence from other sources.” He would not say what the other sources are or what led him to seek specific medical records.

Kline’s office still wants identifying information of the young girls, because, he said, those details could determine whether the girls were impregnated by child molesters.

Also in the motion, Kline agreed to let a judge pick a physician to review the files. Previously, the physician would have been selected by Kline’s office.


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/ka
nsascity/news/local/12657467.htm

Posted by Editor at September 20, 2005 09:14 AM