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Kansas AG to Prosecute Abortion Provider
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Candidate
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision Jun 28, 2007 08:05pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, June 29, 2007 02:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | A doctor who performs abortions was charged Thursday with violating Kansas law on late-term procedures, a surprise move from a Democratic attorney general who recently unseated a prominent anti-abortion Republican.
Attorney General Paul Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor counts alleging that Dr. George Tiller, one of the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortions, got second opinions from a doctor who was not financially and legally independent from him, as the law requires. Morrison's predecessor, Phill Kline, had unsuccessfully prosecuted the same doctor for different reasons.
At a news conference Thursday, Morrison described the allegations as a "technical violation" of a 1998 law restricting late-term procedures. "And it's my job to enforce the law," he said.
Kline filed 30 misdemeanor counts against Tiller in December, after Morrison defeated him but before he left office. He alleged that Tiller performed 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 on patients ages 10 to 22.
A judge quickly threw out those charges over jurisdictional issues, but Morrison launched his own review after taking office in January.
Kline and other abortion opponents had predicted that Morrison wouldn't prosecute Tiller, given that Tiller helped finance tens of thousands of dollars' worth of anti-Kline advertising last year. On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Morrison said he would not pursue 15 reporting-related charges Kline had filed.
Morrison, who supports abortion rights, said Thursday that Kline's charges were "incorrect and based on a political agenda" and insisted that his own case "was not about politics or pursuing a personal agenda."
"During our review of Kline's 30 mistaken charges, we found a pattern—a pattern of referrals from one physician," he said.
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