Abortion rights under siege in Kansas
By
Kathy Durkin
Published Mar 9, 2005 3:37 PM
An outrage is taking place in
Kansas.
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, a fierce long-time opponent
of women's right to choose, has been secretly investigating two women's health
clinics and demanding the complete medical records of 90 women who had undergone
abortions. Last October, a local judge upheld his subpoenas and issued a gag
order forbidding the clinics from notifying their patients about the
investigations into their personal histories.
The situation came to light
recently when the two facilities, including the Wichita Women's Health Care
Services, submitted legal briefs to the Kansas State Supreme Court stating they
would not comply with these subpoenas and turn over the medical records sought.
Their briefs accused the attorney general of a "'secret inquisition' and
'fishing expedition' endangering doctor-patient confidentiality and women's
constitutional rights." (New York Times, Feb. 25)
Kline claimed to be
looking for cases of statutory rape, although the subpoenaed records involve
adults as well as youth and go far afield of the abortions, and into the women's
personal histories.
On March 3, Kline, an author of the state's
restrictive abortion laws, admitted he was investigating the two clinics for
performing late-term abortions, and that doctors could be prosecuted for doing
so. (New York Times, March 4)
Kansas is one of 31 states that have
enacted late-term abortion bans, although it allows the procedures if a woman's
health is in danger.
It is a pivotal state in this struggle. Because
abortions are not available in 87 percent of U.S. counties, many women must
travel to obtain them. Hundreds of women annually go to the Women's Health Care
Clinic in Wichita, Kan., one of the clinics under attack and one of the few that
provides late-term procedures.
Kline's actions are chilling. If state
officials, not doctors, can review medical records to determine if the
procedures were "medically necessary," they can then go on to criminally
prosecute doctors and clinic providers for performing "unnecessary abortions."
The clinics' legal papers raise the possibility of government agents
intrusively appearing at the houses of women who've had abortions, demanding
personal information, thus trampling on their legal rights to privacy and due
process.
Women's reproductive rights and civil liberties' advocates see a
deliberate campaign of harassment and intimidation of doctors and
women.
NOW President Kim Grandy explains, "The Kline controversy is just
the latest in a series of Bush-emboldened extremist actions by
right-wingers--and from Florida to Iowa to California and Kansas, we're seeing
unprecedented invasion of our privacy for political ends. This
search-and-seizure reflex treats women like 'terrorists' instead of women
exercising their constitutional rights." (www.now.org/news)
Kline is
following on the heels of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who, a
year ago, led the Justice Depart ment charge and subpoenaed 900 medical records
of women who had undergone abortions at six medical facilities. But a strong
public campaign and legal struggle pushed Ashcroft back and the subpoenas were
dropped.
NARAL warns of "the most extensive restriction on abortion
rights by any state in over 10 years" in Michigan, where a new law goes into
effect at the end of this month. Although disguised as a prohibition on
late-term procedures, it threatens to ban nearly all abortions, even in the
first trimes ter, and even when medically necessary.
The Michigan State
Medical Society is against the ban because "it endangers women's
health."
(www.plannedparenthood.org)
The ACLU, Center for
Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Fede ration of America went to
federal court in Michigan in early March on behalf of women's health clinics,
doctors and their patients, to try to stop the sweeping abortion ban.
The
Bush gang is using the late-term abortions issue as an entryway into banning all
types of abortions--their ultimate goal in the war on women's rights. Their
anti-reproductive rights stance emboldens the forces seeking to overturn Roe v.
Wade, the legal right to abortion, which was won in 1973 through long, hard
struggle.
Beginning under Clinton's presidency and increasing during
Bush's, legislatures are capitulating to right-wing forces by enacting varied
laws restricting abortions. From 1995-2004, 409 anti-abortion restrictions have
been enacted. (www.naral.org)
The Bush forces seek to push back all
reproductive rights, including birth control, emergency contraception and public
school sex education. It is part of their overall attempt to wipe out the
political, social and economic gains and rights won through decades of struggle
by a broad range of progressive movements.
Pro-choice, health-care and
civil liberties' organizations are fighting back against the right-wing attacks
on women's rights. They are showing that adamant, forceful opposition in the
streets, in the courts and everywhere is the only way to push back the
reactionary forces and secure the legal right to abortion.
Any
equivocating on the part of politicians, including leaders in the Democratic
Party like Hillary Clinton, or any false notion that the ultra-right can be
expected to "compromise" on reproductive rights is a dead end. The only way to
stop them is united mass action and struggle.
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