Kansas Attorney General Targets Abortion Clinics

Republican Attorney General Phill Kline of Kansas is demanding the complete medical files of women and girls who had late-term abortions, saying Thursday that he needs the information to prosecute criminal cases reports the San Francisco Chronicle and NPR.

Kline emphasized statutory rape in his news conference, many in Kansas on both sides of the abortion debate suspect his real target is doctors who provide late-term abortions.

Noting that personal details like marital status, race, employment history and emergency contact information are in the records, lawyers for the clinics asked, "How can a woman's method of birth control, or prior history of abortions, or use of drugs and medications be relevant?"

Kansas is one of 31 states that bans or restricts a procedure sometimes used to terminate pregnancies after the first trimester that doctors call intact dilation and extraction and critics call "partial-birth abortion.'' But its law allows such abortions when a woman's health is endangered. Since those laws were passed in 1998, Kansas has become a national magnet for late-term abortions because of a Wichita doctor who performs them. The doctor, George Tiller, funneled at least $150,000 through political action committees to Kline's opponent in the 2002 race for attorney general, and his clinic, Women's Health Care Services, is one of the two whose records are being subpoenaed reports Jodi Wilgoren of the New York Times.