SALON

Wednesday, Apr 9, 2008 6:26 PM UTC

We’ll just need your private medical files, ma’am

Kansas abortion case tests freedom to subpoena.

By

Topics: Abortion, Broadsheet, Health, Love and Sex,

First we discussed doctors who won’t do their jobs. Now over to Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, Kan., who’s just trying to do his. Tiller, as you may be aware, is one of the few physicians in the country who will, under certain circumstances, provide late-term abortions. Over the past two decades, perhaps needless to say, he has made a few enemies, whose less elegant tactics have included publicizing photos of his patients and flooding and bombing his clinic.

Now Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue has turned its attention to the nearly one in five Kansas children who lives in poverty has dug up an 1887 law that allows citizens to impanel a grand jury to launch a criminal investigation. Result: A grand jury was convened on Jan. 8 in order to investigate whether Tiller’s abortion practices violated Kansas law. They have now subpoenaed the medical records of every patient 22 weeks pregnant or more who saw Dr. Tiller from July 1, 2003, on. That’s about 2,000 women.

Not so fast, say lawyers from the Center for Reproductive Rights, who argued Tuesday before the Kansas Supreme Court that the subpoenas are a “profound intrusion on the patients’ privacy” and on their ability to make reproductive health care decisions “without unwarranted or unconstitutional interference.” Hmm. You think?

“Seizing patients’ private records is beyond the pale, even for anti-choice extremists,” said Nancy Northup, president of the center. (Similar subpoenas have been attempted in other abortion-related cases over the past couple of years.) “If the court ultimately decides in this grand jury’s favor, it will not only be setting a very alarming legal precedent, but arming opponents of a woman’s right to choose with a dangerous weapon in their crusade.” Stay tuned.

Award-winning journalist Lynn Harris is author of the comic novel "Death by Chick Lit" and co-creator of BreakupGirl.net. She also writes for the New York Times, Glamour, and many others. More Lynn Harris.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • A missing poster hangs on a tree outside the Cleveland home of Amanda Berry Wednesday. Berry and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, made a daring escape this week after being held captive for more than a decade.
    Credit: AP/Tony Dejak

  • Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje offer their best impression of  Eric B. & Rakim. On Thursday, New York prosecutors identified the pair as members of an international gang that robbed $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and draining ATM machines around the world.
    Credit: AP

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a podium during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center at Essex County Newark Tech in Newark, N.J., Tuesday. Christie made less flattering headlines this week after undergoing a secret stomach surgery to curb his weight.
    Credit: AP/Julio Cortez

  • Workers stand outside the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday after a fire broke out in its 11-story building. Eight people were killed in the blaze.
    Credit: AP/Ismail Ferdous

  • Workers rescue a woman trapped for 17 days in the rubble of a garment factory building in Saver, Bangladesh, Friday. The building's collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history, killing more than 1,000 people.
    Credit: AP

  • Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford gives his victory speech Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., after winning back his old congressional seat in the state's first district.
    Credit: AP/Rainier Ehrhardt

  • Jodi Arias reacts in Maricopa Country Superior Court Wednesday after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias has subsequently said she wants the death penalty, claiming she'd "prefer to die sooner than later."
    Credit: AP/The Arizona Republic/Rob Schumacher

  • Ariel Castro stands for his mug shot Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, where he is being held on $8 million bail. The former bus driver is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a period of 10 years.
    Credit: AP/Cuyahoga County

  • Charles Ramsey addresses the media Monday after helping rescue three women held captive in Cleveland for more than a decade. Ramsey's hero portraiture has been complicated by revelations of his own domestic violence record.
    Credit: AP/The Plain Dealer/Scott Shaw

  • Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The military branch was rocked this week after its chief sexual assault prevention officer was charged with sexual battery.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 37 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations