If You're Not Feeling the Chill, You're Wearing Way Too Many Clothes!

Crain's Chicago Business on-line publication is reporting that John Ashcroft is using subpoenas to try to get the names of women who've had so-called "partial birth abortions":

"A move by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to subpoena the medical records of 40 patients who received so-called partial-birth abortions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago was halted -- at least temporarily -- when a Chicago federal judge quashed the information request.

"The ruling is the first in a series of subpoenas by the U.S. Justice Department seeking the medical records of patients from seven physicians and at least five hospitals, Crain's sister publication Modern Healthcare has learned. Besides Northwestern, Mr. Ashcroft is seeking patient records from University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers in Ann Arbor; Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp.; Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital both of which are part of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System; and an unidentified San Francisco-area hospital...."

Can there be any good in this? Is there no depth to which these people will not stoop? Is this not -- quite specifically and almost literally -- a witch hunt to end all witch hunts?