What's the Matter with Kansas?

It's like we went to sleep one night and woke up to a police state in Kansas, a foretaste of things to come (see the last post down-column).

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (and, yes, that's how he spells his first name ... one 'l' ain't enough!) is pursuing jihad against abortion in Kansas. He was against abortion when he served in the Kansas state legislature and helped write a very restrictive late-term abortion law (which doesn't quite ban it outright, an oversight he's clearly trying to correct). Kline has been Kansas Attorney General for two years, and he's been busy during that time sniffing out female sexual activity. Last year he made an attempt to require the state's health workers to report any sexual activity of girls younger than 16, but a judge blocked the order. Just so you know where he's coming from, he argued last year that Roe v. Wade should be overturned in an brief in the federal cases on abortions after the first trimester. No doubt about it ... he's a Republican mullah who intends to BREAK women of what he considers an annoying habit.

Now he's on a huge fishing expedition, and he's doing it under cover of investigating rape. He is demanding the complete medical files of scores of women and girls who had late-term abortions, claiming that he is looking for evidence of statutory rape of underage girls. He's gotten a state judge to sign a subpoena directed at two clinics, one run by a doctor who has been a major target of anti-choice activists for years (and who contributed hugely to Kline's opponent in the race for Attorney General). The subpoena is demanding "complete" records, which would include personal details like marital status, race, employment history, and emergency contacts. Lawyers for the clinics asked, "How can a woman's method of birth control or prior history of abortions or use of drugs and medications be relevant?"

The NYTimes says, "It is unclear exactly how the records could lead prosecutors to rape suspects, although the clinics say the files often include information about how patients became pregnant, among other 'intimate details of their lives' like sexual history, birth control practices, drug use, psychological profiles, information about fetal anomalies and communications with law enforcement."

If there's one thing that turns Phill Kline on, it's "intimate details" of women's lives. God help those women, if the courts don't.