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Related website links:
http://www.cashill.com/regional/kline_v_kansas.htm http://www.dr-tiller.com/influence.htm http://www.dr-tiller.com/biography.htm http://www.womeninfluencingthenation.com/news.html http://www.abortiontv.com/Methods/GeorgeTiller.htm
Kansas Department of Health and Environment Abortion Statistics http://www.kdheks.gov/hci/absumm.html
Link to Jack Cashill comprehensive article—“The Man Behind the Curtain—How the Abortion Industry Has Come to Control Kansas”—includes history and happenings of the ongoing abortion cases in Kansas http://www.kfl.org/SiteResources/Data/Templates/templateb.asp?docid=971&DocName=The%20Man%20Behind%20the%20Curtain%20-%20June%203,%202008
Link to Jack Cashill article on World Net Daily—“Why Obama’s Would-be V.P. Won’t Be”— http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66199
Link to Robert D. Novak—Inside Report—“A Vice President for Abortion”—article on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius http://www.creators.com/opinion/robert-novak/a-vice-president-for-abortion.html
Link to Denis Boyles—National Review Online—“Supremely Wrong”—article on Phill Kline and Planned Parenthood http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzM3MGM4ODEyNTM0MTA2YWJhODNhNzRlYjZiZDgyNjQ=#more
Link to LifeSiteNews.com article “Former Abortion Clinic Worker Testifies that Live-Born Baby was Stabbed to Death” http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062402.html#top
Link to WorldNetDaily article “Justice will have to wait for ‘Tiller the killer’; Infamous late-term abortionist’s trial postponed…again” http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67245
Kansas Meadowlark links
Money donated to Kathleen Sebelius by Stephen Six plus articles http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2005/01-04.htm
Controversy over Tiller’s website fund raising http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2005/02-25.htm
Tiller pumps over $210,000 from ProKanDo into A.G. race 2002 and donates $153,000 himself http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2004/12-19a.htm (go to link “Much of Tiller’s 2002 money went to preventing Phill Kline from becoming Attorney General”)
Details from 2002, 2004, 2006 on abortion money in elections http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2006/ShameOfKansas/index.htm
Media articles and videos about Tiller from 2005-2007 (Bill O’Reilly) http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2006/ShameOfKansas/index.htm (go to link “Tiller Political Money Flows” under “Tiller’s Political Money” toward bottom of page)
ProKanDo PAC Contributions and Expenditures 2006 election http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2007/12-04/index.htm
Kansans for Life 10-year Abortion Data Report: March 31, 2008
a total of 5,094 late-term abortions were
performed, including
Abortion
to a viable fetus in Kansas is legal only to prevent substantial and
irreversible damage to the pregnant woman (as subjectively determined by two
unaffiliated, Kansas-licensed physicians) or to prevent the death of a
pregnant woman. (Viability is determined solely by the abortionist, and
is supposed to be an objective diagnosis of whether the fetus can live outside
the womb on the day of the abortion, for an undetermined length of time, with
or without medical assistance.) For the tenth year, not one abortion has been
reported as done to prevent the mother’s death. KANSAS LATE-TERM ABORTIONS
* 365 abortions of unspecified viability
(reported Jan.-June 1998, prior to new reporting law) &
Letter delivered to D.A. Nola Foulston from David Gittrich of Kansans for Life
January 3, 2007 Hand delivered to: Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston Sedgwick County District Court Judge Michael Corrigan & Judge Paul Buchanan All Sedgwick County Commissioners
Ref: Grand Jury
In August of 2007, nearly 7,000 citizens and registered voters in Sedgwick County signed a petition requesting a Grand Jury be convened, as allowed by Kansas law. They requested an investigation into possible violation of law concerning abortions on viable fetuses in Sedgwick County.
The Petition also stated, “Because of possible conflict of interest or prejudice concerning this matter, it is also requested that the District Court of Sedgwick County select a prosecutor who is not, and has not been, employed by the office of the Kansas Attorney General, and who is not associated in any way, currently or previously, with District Attorney Nola Foulston.”
The citizens who signed the petition seek an objective and complete investigation. The perceived lack of enforcement of Kansas laws in question was the impetus for the petition. District Attorney Nola Foulston avoided the issue citing jurisdictional arguments and otherwise refused or failed to act on behalf of the citizenry.
Ms. Foulston’s actions challenging then Attorney General Phill Kline give rise to significant doubts about her ability to remain objective in this investigation. The potential conflict of interest is readily apparent and would be prejudicial.
At a minimum, Ms. Foulston should avoid even the appearance of impropriety and act to preserve if not increase the public's confidence in the criminal justice system. Accordingly, the District Attorney’s Office , the District Court, and the Sedgwick County Commissioners should grant the request of the petitioners and appoint a special, independent prosecutor to assist the Grand Jury in its investigation, and if necessary, prosecution of this important case.
Most Sincerely,
David Gittrich, Concerned Citizen on behalf of all signers of the Grand Jury petition
Kansans for Life July 8, 2008
"[we reviewed] a number of questionable late-term abortions with regard to the diagnosis of 'substantial and irreversible impairment.' As the current law is written and interpreted by the Kansas Supreme Court, late-term abortions will continue for many circumstances that would seem, as a matter of common interpretation, not to meet the definition of 'substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.' "
However, the grand jury's understanding of the Kansas Supreme Court's interpretation is simply incorrect. Their statement has taken language from the Court's 2006 Alpha ruling out of context, and uses it in the following excerpt to undermine the state abortion ban:
The Court has further indicated that if a review of the relevant circumstances surrounding a woman's pregnancy and subsequent abortion revealed no more than a reasonable medical debate over the condition of the patient and the threats posed to her by continuing her pregnancy to term, no crime has been committed by the performance of the abortion. Sinister legal interpretation Certainly many legal cases involve conflicting testimony by medical experts, but the mere existence of conflicting medical opinions does not prevent resolution of legal disputes-- much less the filing of charges!
The fact that the Grand Jury acted under such a blatant misunderstanding of this point casts serious doubt on the nature of the legal advice the grand jury was receiving. Whether it was Tiller's team (unrebutted by Sedgwick D.A.Foulston's office)--or her office, itself-- some legal mind(s) wrongly tutored the members of the jury that the Courts' use of the phrase "no more than a reasonable medical debate" in the Alpha case related to the enforceability of K.S.A. 65-6703.
In fact even a cursory reading of the opinion shows that this was not at all the case. The phrase in question related only to what portions of medical records were required to be redacted (edited for personally-identifying information).
In the February 2006 Alpha decision, the Court showed its hyper-sensitivity about patient privacy interests and its distrust of then-Attorney General Phill Kline's reading of the abortion ban. In Alpha, the Court allowed Judge Anderson to release abortion clinic records to Kline only if they had been unambiguously selected the way a "pro-choice" prosecutor would, i.e. "firm legal ground." But they used the phrase "no more than a reasonable medical debate," in the context of the selection and redaction of evidence being done by attorneys and physicians. It did NOT herald an "interpretation" that illegal late-term abortions could not be investigated.
Judge Anderson filed a response in November 2006, when releasing the multiply-redacted records. He told the Court in writing that the records were evidence, in light of a straightforward reading of the law, that "document more than the existence of a reasonable medical debate" about criminal abortion statutes. Weeks after that filing, Wichita Judge Yost's professional review also echoed that the records were "probable cause" evidence of criminality.
Yet SOMEONE misinformed the jury otherwise, and the jury acted, based on this understanding. And Tiller's defense certainly relies on this "spin" that data about late-term abortion is hopelessly mired in medical jargon and prevents non-physician citizens from passing judgment on the reasons they were allowed. Tiller's attorney congratulated the jury's refusal to indict, saying, "To a lay person, it could be indigestion, but to a trained medical professional it could be a heart attack." In other words, whatever diagnoses two doctors agree upon can never be questioned, even by the Attorney General charged with investigating such activities!
KFL railed against this bogus nullification of the abortion ban when former A.G. Paul Morrison promoted this very same interpretation in July 2007. But apparently, this was always the end game for Sedgwick D.A. Foulston, whose office had authority over the jury and whose assistant, Ann Swegle, was supposed to provide accurate legal guidance to the empanelled citizens. And it was accomplished at the outset when the grand jury was denied the independent prosecutor demanded by the citizen petition.
What the jury was deterred from accomplishing It was probably too much to hope that a grand jury under Foulston's watch would be allowed to produce indictments against Tiller, because it would return her to the high-profile situation of December 2006, when Kline tried to file criminal charges against Tiller. At that time, she successfully fought off Kline's jurisdictional authority and dropped the charges, but her action reinforced charges Tiller "owns" Kansas. (Morrison's January 2007 interference with an appeal of that case, and the governor's April 2007 party for Tiller's entire staff, strengthen that perception.)
For ten years, the Kansas abortion ban has been disobeyed. The law that says a medical deter- mination for a viable baby abortion, having been corroborated by an independent physician, must be reported to the state with the underlying reason and basis. But ten years of state reporting is missing the diagnosis and basis for over 2,800 viable baby abortions. The state has accepted "non-answers" that restate statutory language but plainly dodge the questions on the state reporting form. There were 34 Tiller files from 2003 sent by the current AG's office for the jury to review, files that two judges found to contain evidence of probable, not possible crimes! But the jury statement curiously reads: "this Grand Jury has not found sufficient evidence to bring an indictment on any crime related to the abortion laws."
Questions remain: Who misinformed the jury that they were incapable of reading the annually published abortion data to determine whether abortionists give honest answers on state reports? Did someone, including Swegle, dissuade the jury from indicting for the Neuhaus situation, by assuring them the A.G. will 'take care of it"? And were Tiller's records from 2004-2008 (sent just weeks ago to the jury) cherry-picked to underplay his reliance on Neuhaus?
►This jury should have indicted Tiller for failure to report reasons for viable baby abortions performed from 2003 -2007 and for repeatedly using the same financially dependent doctor (Kristin Neuhaus) to "rubber stamp" a substantial and irreversible condition.
None of the indictments the jury failed to bring would be non-prosecutable due to medical complexity or subjectivity. The lawmakers who wrote the ban were aware of medical/legal intricacies. They required fetal age and viability assessments to use objective criteria but allowed medical "elbow room" for the maternal medical diagnoses. No limits were given as long as each diagnosis was named and reported.
The problem is that Tiller hasn't the integrity to list the diagnoses on the state form. That is not a deficiency the legislature needs to correct, it is criminal conduct that state prosecutors and the Governor's health department refuse to correct.
Now these prosecutors, and their Governor, have a new scapegoat-- a deficiently drafted law-- as the grand jury closing statement reads: "until the State Legislature is willing to amend the present statutes and provide clearer and more definitive guidelines regarding 'substantial and irreversible impairment,' or impose new or additional statutory limitations on the ability of a woman to obtain an abortion of a viable fetus, we doubt that any investigation into the practices and procedures of Dr. Tiller and the Women's Health Care Services will yield an outcome that will provide any basis for indictment."
JURY FACTS: After nearly 7,000 citizens signed a petition written and distributed by Kansans For Life, the grand jury was empaneled, but suffered a delay of nine weeks while the Supreme Court considered, and rejected, Tiller's motion to disband the jury. The jury commenced Jan.8. The jury was denied, from Feb.2- May 6 (half its term), access to its primary evidence--abortion records--while the Court again considered, and rejected, motions to disband the jury by Tiller and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Kansans for Life Press Release
July 2, 2008
Kansans for Life Press Release June 25, 2008 Is "Born-Alive Infant Protection" ignored in Kansas?
►2 laws protect infant survivors of abortion: Kansas & Federal
If true, this would violate both Kansas and federal Born-Alive Infant Protection laws. "I wish I was surprised," said Kansans for Life Executive Director, Mary Kay Culp, "but I'm not. Tiller's clinic has been allowed to operate an unlicensed crematorium for years, and--as the former Wichita coroner pointed out--this means anything can happen there." (See below)
ACTIONS RECOMMENDED ►The state Board of Healing Art's new disciplinary grid assigns misconduct and crimes that include criminal abortions to result in mandatory suspension and fines. To protect the public, and noting that Tiller's abortion facility uses an onsite crematorium to dispose of potential evidence, we urge the Board's investigation in this alleged stabbing be assigned the highest priority.
►Because the federal health agency [DHHS] announced it will strongly enforce the Born-Alive law, we ask that Eric Melgren, U.S. Attorney, open an immediate investigation. Citizens need to know: (1) whether all Kansas physicians and institutions are properly following federal guidelines on infant protection, and (2) if this "death by stabbing" claim is credible, what actions can be taken.
FEDERAL ISSUES The charge by the ex-Tiller-employee would not be the first time for such reports. On April 22, 2005, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced they were taking action to improve compliance with the 2002 Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which reads: "determining the meaning of any Act of Congress .shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. http://www.nrlc.org/federal/Born_Alive_Infants/BAIPLaw0405.html
STATE ACTIONS FOR BORN-ALIVE PROBLEM In response to the 2005 announced federal program to step up Born Alive enforcement, Kansans for Life supported SB 528, sponsored in 2006 by State Senator Nick Jordan, which included this provision: "The secretary of health and environment shall design and promulgate a form for an attempted abortion resulting in a live birth and provide copies to all relevant entities." http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2006/528.pdf Gov. Sebelius vetoed this bill.
State law since 1997 clearly protects infants that survive abortion. Kansas' Women's Right to Know Informed Consent Law requires: "If the child is born alive, the attending physician has the legal obligation to take all reasonable steps necessary to maintain the life and health of the child;" http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-statutes/getStatuteInfo.do
The penalty for such a state violation is a charge of unprofessional conduct for the physician, requiring action by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. In April 2008, amidst scandal for failure to discipline scandalous physicians, the Board quietly adopted new guidelines for imposing consistent sanctions for unprofessional and criminal conduct. http://www.ksbha.org/boardactions/Documents/guidelines_HB_2620%20.pdf
WICHITANS LONG OUTRAGED AT UNLICENSED ABORTION CREMATORIUM According to an opinion issued Sept. 10,1991 by Sedgwick County D.A. Nola Foulson, with the consent of Attorney General Bob Stephan, an aborted human fetus is not a dead body under Kansas law and Wichita doctors who perform abortions do not have to file reports with the local coroner.
The ruling rejects a complaint by the county coroner's office that George Tiller and other Wichita physicians who perform abortions are violating state law when they cremate the remains of aborted fetuses without applying for a certificate authorizing the cremation. Deputy County Coroner William Eckert was unhappy with the ruling, saying, ''I am concerned that there are no records available that doctors or other people could use to see what the hell is going on. theoretically, they can flush everything or burn it." Members of the Wichita Rescue Movement also echoed outrage at the legal double standard and called for Foulston's recall. (*Wichita Eagle, Sept 11th and 13th, 1991)
At that time, Kansas' law did not recognize fetuses as human beings under any circumstances. However, in 2005, Kansas amended its criminal code, with the passage of Alexa's Law, allowing the fetus to be considered human for purposes of prosecuting for criminal injury and death.
NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS Students for Life went undercover March 9, 2008, to tape a Feminist Majority Foundation's annual conference, featuring late-term Wichita abortionist George Tiller. On the video, Tiller openly discusses children
who "slip out" accidentally during an abortion yet failed to
recognize the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. See http://www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/tiller/ Corrected from earlier
version: (The federal version passed
prior to Obama becoming a U.S. Senator so he did not vote on the
federal version of the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.)
Kansans for Life--June 6, 2008
Kansans for Life calls for AG to send redacted abortion files to Grand Jury immediately
--
Open Letter to Kansas Attorney General Six --
Kansans for Life interprets this report to mean the Attorney General's office is sitting on 30 ready-to-use redacted files from 2003, one month after the court eased the standard for relevancy, and four months after being subpoenaed by the grand jury.
It is not surprising that Tiller is dragging his feet to delay prosecution, but why would the Attorney General do so?
This Attorney General's office wrongly refused to honor grand jury subpoenas for Tiller records from 2003, instead joining with the intervention by the Supreme Court on Feb 5, and virtually halting the jury after it had been at work for only one month. The result was the grand jury was put on hold until May 6, losing three precious months of record review.
Any more stalling is an act of grave injustice. The grand jury, by law, will end in one month, on July 8, and cannot be extended.
It is also intolerable that as late as yesterday, June 4, the AG spokesperson (in another AP report) is still telling the press fairytales about patient privacy. Documents recently unsealed by the state Supreme Court show how phony those old privacy claims are, and how the Attorney General has actually joined litigation with alleged felons against a state prosecutor and a judge. There were originally 90 abortion files from 2003 subpoenaed by Inquisition under Judge Richard Anderson in 2004. 61 files were subpoenaed from Tiller's Wichita clinic and 29 files from Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. Not one Kansas Attorney General--Kline, Morrison or Six-NOT ONE has EVER possessed original 2003 abortion files with personally-identifying information. They have all obtained PHOTOCOPIES of files from 2003, and only AFTER repeated redaction by not only the abortion clinics, but also two court -appointed doctors and one special attorney appointed as a guardian ad litem for the patients.
TILLER 'CHERRY-PICKING' STALL? Only 20 out of 2000 eligible Tiller records have reached Judge Buchanan, who presides over the grand jury. That rate, of only one file per business day since the Supreme Court ruling, fosters the impression of intentional mischief on the part of Tiller.
Recently uncovered Planned Parenthood manipulations of state abortion reports, while ignored by this Attorney General's office, add fuel to our suspicions that Tiller may be cherry-picking, or even altering, documents. {Interestingly, both clinics use the same attorney to fight against the release of abortion records.}
The grand jury should view all the relevant evidence available, instead of being limited to information filtering in from Tiller. The Attorney General balked at releasing their 2003 Tiller photocopied files until the Supreme Court made their second ruling on the grand jury process. But the Court made that ruling on May 6.
The Supreme Court now permits district judges (i.e. the grand jury's Judge Buchanan} to requisition medical record evidence unless "there is no reasonable possibility that the patients' records being sought will produce information relevant to the general subject of the grand jury's investigation."
We cannot understand why, one month after the Court set a lower, not higher, threshold for obtaining records, properly redacted photocopies of records-- sitting in the AG's office-- have not been sent to the Wichita grand jury. Additional Note: Key Upcoming Dates: Keep updated at www.kfl.org
Kansans for Life Press Release--May 28, 2008 Four late-term abortionists and the staff
of George Tiller's Wichita abortion clinics enjoyed a posh, private dinner with
Governor Kathleen Sebelius last spring, according to photos revealed today by
Operation Rescue. All photos here:(http://operationrescue.org/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=4190)
The following excerpt is not for the faint-hearted:
Case # 4:97CV3205- July 17, 1997 - 9:00 a.m. - Lincoln, Nebraska
Portions of the transcript of the Preliminary Injunction Proceedings are as follows:
Q = Lawyer A= Leroy Carhart, M.D. _________________________________________________________________ Q: "Are there times when you don't remove the fetus intact?" A: "Yes, Sir."
Q: "Can you tell me about that, when that occurs?" A: "That occurs when the tissue fragments, or frequently when you rupture membranes, an arm will spontaneously prolapse through the os."
Q: "What do you do then?" A: "My normal course would be to dismember that extremity and then go back and try to take the fetus out either foot first or skull first, whatever end I can get to first."
Q: "How do you go about dismembering that extremity?" A: ".grasping the portion that you can get ahold of.rotating to dismember the shoulder or the hip or whatever it would be. Sometimes you will get one leg and you can't get the other leg out."
Q: "In that situation, are you, when you pull on the arm and remove it, is the fetus still alive?" A: "Yes."
Q: "Do you consider an arm, for example, to be a substantial portion of the fetus?" A: ". I think if I lost my arm, that would be a substantial loss to me."
Q: "At what point is the fetus-does the fetus die during that process?" A: "I don't really know. I know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see the fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound."
Kansans for Life Press
Release--May 29, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
