Ethically Challenged Kansas Attorney General Targeted Tiller, Planned Parenthood

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-01-24 07:00:00 UTC
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What's the matter with Kansas? Right now, a lot of attention is focused on the trial of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller's confessed killer. But there's also another investigation underway, of former Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline, who spent a big chunk of his time running after Planned Parenthood and Dr. Tiller, trying to catch them breaking the law.

And, it turns out, when he couldn't find any evidence of wrongdoing, he tried lying to get his way. (Oh -- and he still failed.) A recent ethics complaint rips into Kline for a series of shady actions and ethical breaches, in the pursuit of his biased agenda against the provision of safe, legal abortions.

The charges against Kline include privacy-violating actions against women who went to Dr. Tiller's clinic, such as as taking down license plate numbers and pulling the guest list of a nearby hotel, and then pretending to the Kansas Supreme Court that he hadn't attempted to find out information about these patients. He also left private medical files lying around in an open garage, a car, and on someone's dining table -- but told investigators that he was doing a top-notch job keeping this paperwork "under lock and key." Nice to know he had so much respect for women's personal medical documents.

Kline continued to have a problem with making stuff up, presenting the judge with data that he already knew to be inaccurate to justify his poking around Planned Parenthood and Dr. TIller's clinic, and selectively presenting evidence to a grand jury.

Just tally Kline up with the other reproductive rights opponents that harass women and abortion providers for a perfectly legal act, using whatever underhanded means available to them.

Photo credit: TheTruthAbout...

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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