Steve Rose Prepares Kansas for "St Paul"Morrison's reasoning for letting Tiller off the hook
Will Morrison charge Tiller?
BY: Steve Rose, Chairman
June 6, 2007
KC Community News
Steve Rose, Chairman
You can put this in the bank. Whether Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison does or does not personally approve of late-term abortions, his personal feelings will not get in the way of his investigation into Dr. George Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita.
That clinic, by its own description on its own Web site, claims to have more experience in late abortion services with fetuses over 24 weeks than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere, more than 60,000 since 1973.
Many Kansans are confused about the impact of The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on partial birth abortion on this state. As a matter of fact, it will have no impact, because the specific procedure called “partial birth abortion” has not been conducted anywhere in Kansas for the last eight years.
The Supreme Court ban does not address a different procedure, sometimes called “late-term viable abortion,” which is performed all the time at Tiller’s clinic, when the health of the mother, either physical or mental, is at risk. This procedure involves taking apart the fetus inside the uterus and removing pieces through the dilated cervix. Unless the Kansas Legislature changes its law, Dr. Tiller can continue that procedure every day of the week, as well as other late term abortion techniques.
In the meantime, the question is, will Dr. Tiller be prosecuted on any of the 30 criminal counts filed against him by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who was defeated in his re-election bid in November?
Those criminal counts accuse Tiller of late-term abortions in 2003 on patients ages 10 to 22 and not properly reporting details to the state, as required by state law. Kline accused Tiller of performing abortions on teenagers who had consensual sex, which Kline defines as “child rape.”
Kline demanded, and received, private medical records to conduct his investigation. This controversial effort made Kline unpopular at the polls and, probably, led to his defeat.
It has been reported on Web sites that Morrison has dropped all the charges. That information is downright false.
Morrison has reviewed the 30 counts and publicly has called many of the counts “ridiculous,” and is not pursuing them. Some counts, however, have Morrison’s attention, and his office is continuing to investigate them vigorously. Morrison said he will make known his findings in mid-June.
I have a strong hunch Morrison will charge Tiller with some counts, probably pertaining to the lack of notification to the state. If the charges hold up, those crimes are misdemeanors and will result in fines, not prison terms.
The point is, for Paul Morrison n despite his well-known animosity toward Phill Kline and his general attitude that Kline conducted a “witch hunt” of Tiller’s abortion clinic n the law is the law. If Tiller violated any law, in Paul Morrison’s judgment, there will be charges filed.
Unless there are felonies charged, and Tiller is found guilty, you can be sure nothing will get in the way of Tiller continuing to perform late term abortions within whatever laws prevail.
Tiller has already withstood a bombing of his clinic in 1985, and he was shot by a woman in 1993 in both arms. A day after the shooting, Tiller returned to his clinic to continue his work.
There is no question in my mind that Kline went after Tiller in the first place to make a name nationally, which he did. Morrison, on the other hand, is more interested in putting bad guys behind bars and serving justice. He is low-profile and could not care less about national recognition.
If there are violations, he will go after Tiller, even though Kline might, indirectly, get some of the credit.