Tiller Attorneys Begin Compiling Medical Records To Grand Jury For Examination

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Medical Malpractice / Litigation
Article Date: 06 Feb 2008 - 5:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Attorneys for abortion provider George Tiller -- owner of Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kan. -- on Friday began compiling the medical records of 2,000 women who sought or obtained abortions after their 21st week of pregnancy to comply with a grand jury subpoena, the Wichita Eagle reports. Tiller's attorneys had appealed the ruling to the Kansas Supreme Court, arguing that the threat of identifying abortion recipients violated women's constitutional rights (Sylvester, Wichita Eagle, 2/2).

The grand jury is investigating whether Tiller violated Kansas law, which allows women to abort a fetus post-viability only if two doctors certify that continuing the pregnancy could kill the woman or cause "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." The Supreme Court requires that a woman's mental as well as physical health be taken into account.

Former Sedgwick County, Kan., Chief Judge Paul Buchanan, who is overseeing the grand jury investigation of Tiller, on Wednesday ordered Women's Health Care Services to use "all deliberate speed" in providing the files to the Sedgwick County district attorney's office. Buchanan ordered Tiller to provide prosecutors with the identifying numbers on the files by Thursday at noon, and files would then be selected at random from the identifying numbers. Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, also filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Tiller's patients. Jones filed an affidavit from three of Tiller's patients that asks the courts to keep their records (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/1).

Tiller's attorneys argued in district court on Friday that removing the names from medical records in an earlier investigation did not stop former state Attorney General Phill Kline (R) from discovering the patients' identities. Laura Shaneyfelt, one of Tiller's lawyers, told Buchanan that Kline had been able to identify patients, even after the state Supreme Court ordered that the names be removed.

Shaneyfelt showed a document from the attorney general's office, compiled when Kline held the post, that matched guest registration records at a hotel near Women's Health Care Services with dates and details of abortion records. According to a February 2005 subpoena, Kline's office asked for information and telephone records of guests at the La Quinta Inn who stayed in rooms reserved by Tiller and his employees, as well as addresses and telephone numbers of guests at the hotel who "received a medical discount." Kline spokesperson Brian Burgess said that the patients were not identified but did not elaborate, saying that the details of the investigation are still under seal (Wichita Eagle, 2/2).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2007 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.