Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline
The Los Angeles Times profiles Kline:
"Study Kansas history," he said the other day, words tumbling out in an eager rush. "We were at the forefront of the abolitionist movement, the women's suffrage movement, prohibition…. Then we got conservatism and recognized the importance of faith."
Gee, it sounds like Phill Kline doesn't consider abolition or women's suffrage to be "conservative" values.
He declares that some of the laws he's sworn to enforce are repugnant to him — especially a woman's right to abortion. He says he will uphold that right, but he interprets it narrowly. Kansas law permits abortions late in pregnancy only if the woman would otherwise face "a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." To Kline, this means her physical health must be gravely threatened.
That interpretation is at odds with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that restrictions on abortion must include exceptions for the woman's mental as well as physical health. Nonetheless, Kline is weighing criminal charges against doctors who may have terminated advanced pregnancies out of concern for the mother's psychological state. Seeking evidence, he is demanding access to dozens of patient medical records; the abortion clinics are appealing.
I guess Phill Kline considers current Supreme Court precedent to be "repugnant" as well. He's not just interpreting that narrowly, though, he's ignoring it entirely. Some attorney general.
This is the same man who demanded abortion clinic records because, according to him, he wanted to find evidence of statutory rape. Does anyone really believe that? He's on a fishing expedition not for crimes, but for abortion because he wants to personally restrict it has far as he thinks he can under the law.
A federal judge in Georgia recently ordered the removal of stickers in biology textbooks telling students that "evolution is a theory, not a fact." Soon after, Kline told conservative members of the Kansas Board of Education that he would back them if they put similar stickers on textbooks — a move the board had not even considered when the attorney general brought it up. Kline is vague on how he would overcome the legal objections raised by the Georgia judge, but he insists he could.
Phill Kline sounds like the sort of person who can easily get people to follow him — but he's leading them over a cliff because he has no way to make good on his promises. I'm certainly glad that he is in Kansas rather than Pennsylvania. He's a danger to the people around him.
Read More:
Comments
yeah know…i think that you are a sad person. To be misinformed and allowed to display it all over the internet takes such talent…
you seem to have absolutely no expert experience in this field, so why are you taking up so much valuable time with it?
I advise you to know your facts before you “proudly” exclaim them.
Reply to this, if and only if you get your facts straight.
Thank You.
Can you say what, exactly, I am misinformed about?
I believe that I do know my facts. If you think differently, you are encouraged to post corrections. If you cannot post corrections, then it doesn’t make much sense to claim that I am misinformed, does it? Indeed, what is the point of writing a comment to say “you’re wrong” without also saying what I’m so wrong about and what the correct information is?
Is there any chance that you’re annoyed that Kansas voters kicked Phill Kline out of office?
Sounds like Kline was way off:
In 2006, Operation Rescue uncovered documents suggesting that that Robert A. Estrada, a man alleged to have committed several rapes of children, was captured with the help of abortion clinic medical records subpoenaed as a result of Kline’s investigation. The documents seemed to indicate that in October 2005, Kline had forwarded abortion clinic medical records obtained from the now-defunct Central Women’s Services in Wichita to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office. Along with other information provided by an adoption group that had seen one of the girls alleged to have been a victim, those records resulted in Estrada’s capture the following month. Estrada was convicted of nine felony counts of rape and indecent liberties with a child. The District Attorney who prosecuted Estrada challenged Operation Rescue’s claims, stating that Kline had no involvement in the prosecution.