Abortion opponents lobby to revive Tiller case, investigation

By JOHN HANNA

Associated Press Writer

 

TOPEKA, Kan. -

Angry that the state's best-known abortion provider isn't facing criminal charges, abortion opponents lobbied legislators today to force a case into court and to launch their own investigation.

 

Two anti-abortion groups, Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue, sponsored a Statehouse rally, attended by about 100 people, and the House Federal and State Affairs Committee scheduled a hearing on the case of Dr. George Tiller, of Wichita, one of the few U.S. doctors to perform late-term abortions.

The committee already has endorsed a resolution directing Attorney General Paul Morrison to file 30 misdemeanor criminal charges against Tiller, accusing the doctor of violating legal restrictions on late-term abortions. Those charges were filed in December in Sedgwick County by Morrison's predecessor, Phill Kline, but later dismissed.

Besides trying to force Morrison to refile the case against Tiller, abortion opponents want the House, a majority of whose members oppose abortion, to conduct its own investigation.

"If they would take it a step further, if they would do investigatory hearings, if they would assign a special prosecutor, that would be even better," Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life's executive director, said during a news conference.

She added: "There needs to be accountability. You know, Morrison just needs to know that someone is paying attention."

Morrison has said he's reviewing the Tiller case and if there's evidence of a crime, he will prosecute. But abortion opponents don't trust him to be aggressive because Tiller helped finance hundreds of thousands of dollars of anti-Kline advertising in the 2002 and 2006 elections.

The attorney general wasn't planning to attend the House committee's hearing and had conflicting meetings, spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said. But he did schedule an afternoon news conference.

Morrison, an abortion rights Democrat, unseated Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, in the November general election, but Kline's term didn't end until Jan. 8. A day after Kline filed the charges in December, a district judge dismissed them on jurisdictional grounds. Tiller's attorneys have said repeatedly that the charges were without merit.

Most of the abortion opponents participating in Tuesday's rally wore red T-shirts saying, "Charge Tiller. It's the law."

"We must send this to a jury of Mr. Tiller's peers to decide whether or not he's guilty and remove the cloud of suspicion that hangs over Kansas today," Troy Newman, Operation Rescue's president said, shouting over abortion opponents' applause at the news conference. "Kansas is the laughingstock of America. Do laws mean anything?"

Kline's legislative allies engineered the committee's endorsement of the resolution Monday, which sent the measure to the House. The resolution invokes a little-used Kansas law that allows either the House or the Senate to adopt a resolution to force the attorney general to file a case.

But the House committee also scheduled the hearings after Morrison's fellow Democrats complained about how quickly it was acting on the resolution, and House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, has said he doesn't know how quickly his chamber will debate the measure.

In his complaint against Tiller, Kline alleged the doctor performed 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 on patients aged 10 to 22, then failed to properly report the details to state health officials.

State law says an abortion of a viable fetus can be performed after the 22nd week of pregnancy to prevent "substantial and irreversible" harm to a major bodily function.

In his complaint, Kline said evidence showed that the abortions were performed after a diagnosis of a "single episode" of major depression, acute stress or anxiety or, in one case, no specific disorder. None of those reasons met the legal test, that a patient face "irreversible" harm, Kline alleged.

Kline filed his charges after a one Sedgwick County district judge, Eric Yost, a former anti-abortion legislator, concluded there was probable cause to believe that Tiller had violated the law.

But another judge, Paul W. Clark, dismissed the charges at the request of District Attorney Nola Foulston, agreeing with her that Kline didn't have the authority to file a case in Sedgwick County because he didn't have her consent. Kline argued that the attorney general can file a case anywhere in the state.

Abortion opponents filed an ethics complaint last week against Clark, arguing that he should have considered removing himself from the Tiller case. They also contend he should have disclosed in open court contributions to his 2004 re-election campaign, $500 from a law firm representing Tiller and $500 from Foulston and her husband.

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Kline's case was State v. Tiller, No. 06CR2961 in Sedgwick County.

On the Net:

Attorney general's office: http://www.ksag.org/index.shtml

Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org

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