AP/Hutchinson News Examines Kansas Abortion-Rights Opponents' Use Of Law To Launch Grand Jury Investigations

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 23 Jan 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The AP/Hutchinson News on Friday examined how abortion-rights opponents in Kansas are using an 1887 state law that allows citizens to convene grand jury investigations to turn Kansas "into one of the nation's biggest abortion battlegrounds." Under the law, citizens can force a grand jury investigation in Kansas if they gather signatures from 2% of the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election in the county, plus 100 additional signatures.

According to the AP/News, the law has been used twice to impanel a grand jury to investigate abortion provider George Tiller. A separate grand jury also convened to investigate Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, the AP/News reports. Five other states -- Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oklahoma -- have similar laws, according to one of Tiller's attorneys. No other state advocates have appeared to use the laws to pursue a "social and moral agenda as extensively as Kansas" advocates, according to the AP/News.

Phillip Jauregui, counsel for the Life Legal Defense Foundation, said Kansas residents are invoking the law because prosecutors in the state have been too lenient in abortion-related cases. "This is a right the people of Kansas have given themselves," Jauregui said. Phillip Cosby, executive director of the National Coalition for Protection of Children and Families, said that citizens use the law to "strengthen the prosecutor's hand" and let officials know "they are not alone -- that we the people feel there is a very big problem."

Some abortion-rights supporters said the law is a dangerous tool for the antiabortion advocates. Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said that the grand jury investigation of Tiller is a "witch hunt -- plain and simple," adding that it "clearly demonstrates the inherent danger of empowering biased advocacy groups to impanel a grand jury." Lee Thompson, an attorney for Tiller, said, "We see in Kansas a perfect example of a system which has virtually become active vigilantism." He added, "A very small minority number of people who have a specific agenda can force a criminal investigation -- and I think that is a usurpation of the executive power of government" (Hegeman, AP/Hutchinson News, 1/18).

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