LIFE DIGEST: Shredding of abortion reports thwarts prosecution of P.P.
- Oct 26, 2011 -
Prosecution of a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Kansas hit a major barrier Oct. 21 when it was revealed in court the state government had destroyed records that were vital in the case.
Johnson County prosecutors, who said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) shredded the 2003 abortion records in 2005, requested a postponement in the hearing, according to The Kansas City Star. On Oct. 24, judge Stephen Tatum granted a two-week delay in a case that involves 23 felony counts of falsifying abortion reports and 84 misdemeanor charges.
Also in this edition: New York woman chooses life for child conceived by rape, San Francisco passes advertising restriction for pregnancy help centers, Russia passes modest restrictions on abortion, and Wisconsin Senate votes to bar abortion funds in health care.
Former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline filed the charges in 2007 against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, which is located in Overland Park, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City. Kline had received records from the KDHE in 2003 during an investigation of Planned Parenthood in his role as Kansas’ attorney general. He later gained copies from Planned Parenthood but said they differed from the ones provided by the state, according to The Star.
Current Johnson County prosecutors said obtaining the records from the KDHE is crucial in verifying the genuineness of the reports received by Kline from the department.
The KDHE destroyed the records as a “routine” shredding of documents, according to court files, The Star reported.
Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, expressed skepticism in response.
“Unbelievable,” she said, according to The Star. “We don’t believe for one second this was anything but purposefully done to protect the abortion industry.”
The document destruction occurred under the administration of then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a defender of abortion rights who rejected legislative efforts to enact stricter regulation of abortion clinics. Sebelius is now secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
New York woman chooses life for child conceived by rape
A young New York City woman is grateful she didn’t choose abortion as a solution to her pregnancy by rape.
Ashleigh, 22 at the time, was attacked by two men on an April night in 2008 as she walked to her boyfriend’s home. After a month in which she dropped out of school and said she could not sleep or eat, she learned she was pregnant. Because Ashleigh was a virgin, she was certain one of her rapists was the father.
“My boyfriend was horrified and demanded that I have an abortion,” she told The Brooklyn Ink. “But that went against everything I believe in. He said it was either him or the baby and I choose the baby.”
Keeping her daughter, who was born the following January, was the best decision she has made, Ashleigh said.
“I named her Esperanza because it means hope in Spanish,” she said. “Hope is what she gives me everyday as a single mother. My baby girl got me to live my life again.”
The Oct. 18 account of Ashleigh’s rape and pregnancy followed an outbreak of rapes in Brooklyn, according to The Ink.
San Francisco passes advertising restriction for pregnancy help centers
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave first approval in a 10-1 vote Oct. 18 to a measure that would prohibit pregnancy help centers from providing false or misleading information about their services. A second vote is required to enact the law.
Supporters of the ordinance said they wanted to make certain a woman’s right to abortion is not threatened, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sean Elsbernd, the lone supervisor to oppose the ordinance, said there had been “no testimony, no documentation, no affidavits of any woman seeking service who has been misled.”
“There is nothing in the record documenting that,” he said, the newspaper reported. “What I hear we are doing today is passing a solution in search of a problem.”
Other local governments that have passed legislation seeking to control the speech of pregnancy help centers have been rebuffed in court. Federal judges have blocked the enforcement of laws in New York City; Baltimore, Md., and Montgomery County, Md., that required such centers to display signs saying they do not provide abortions or contraceptives or make referrals for those services.
Russia passes modest restrictions on abortion
Russia’s parliament approved mild restrictions on abortion Oct. 21.
The new law limits abortion to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with an exception up to 22 weeks for women who contend they cannot financially support children, according to the Associated Press.
The limited restrictions take effect in a country with one of the world’s highest abortion rates and a fertility rate of just 1.4 children, AP reported. The normal rate to maintain the current population is 2.1
The measure is “a modest step in the right direction – but a positive development nonetheless,” said Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families.
Russia loses about 700,000 in population annually, Jacobs said. Its population of 143 million could fall to 112 million by 2050, he said.
“While the new legislation is to be applauded, much, much more needs to be done if Russia is to have a future,” Jacobs said.
Wisconsin Senate votes to bar abortion funds in health care
Wisconsin’s Senate approved Oct. 20 a bill that would empower the state to opt out of subsidizing abortion in the insurance exchange established by last year’s federal health-care law. The party-line vote in the Republican-controlled chamber was 17-16, the Associated Press reported.
The Assembly also is expected to pass the legislation and send it to Gov. Scott Walker, a conservative Republican.
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