Planned Parenthood Attempts to Carve Out
Special Privileges for Abortion Cases
PP's arguments designed to keep
incriminating testimony out of court
Oral arguments were made this morning before the Kansas Supreme Court
concerning whether or not subpoenas for testimony in the criminal case
involving 107 charges against Planned Parenthood should be allowed to
go forward.
Steven J. Obermeier made arguments for the District Attorney's office.
He indicated that Judge Richard Anderson, custodian of evidence in this
case, is currently under a gag order issued by the Kansas Supreme Court
preventing him from testifying or releasing any of the evidence. That
gag order sprung from a separate case that has since been dismissed.
Because the original case no longer exists, he asked that Anderson be
allowed to testify.
Obermeier was questioned about why he believed he could use information
from the KDHE forms that statute labeled as "confidential." Obermeier
explained that the District Attorney's office handles confidential
documents all the time. "Confidential" does not mean that they are
beyond subpoena. If that was the legislative intent, then it would have
been stated in the statute, as it is in other statutes. Obermeier said
that he never heard of a judge denying a district attorney KDHE records
until Judge Steven Tatum quashed the subpoenas in this case.
Planned Parenthood attorney Pedro Irigonegaray argued that the appeal
is frivolous, "motivated by politics rather than by rule of law." As
predicted, he argued that abortion cases should be handled differently
than other cases out of concern for "patient privacy" saying that
abortion-related records were the "most private." He told the court
that district attorneys have no authority to subpoena the KDHE records
or use them for evidence.
All documents in question have had all traces of patient identifying
information removed.
When asked about the application of one of Irigongaray's legal theories
to other situations, he responded, "You mean non-abortion cases?"
"That statement by Planned Parenthood's lawyer was very telling,
because he is trying to carve out special privileges under the law for
abortion cases, placing them above the laws and procedures that would
apply to any other case," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman,
who was present for the hearing. "In other words, Planned Parenthood
would have abortion records treated with more sensitivity than rape or
murder records. This is ridiculous and is simply a ploy to keep
incriminating evidence out of court."
The justices took the case under advisement. A ruling is expected
before the end of June.
Contact: Troy Newman, Cheryl Sullenger
Source: Operation Rescue
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Date: May 13, 2009
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