I won't call this a victory yet. The Kansas Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a grand jury, convened at the request of abortion opponents, from obtaining the medical records of about 2000 records of women, including those that decided not to have abortions. The same grand jury has also issued subpoenas for information on current and former employees of Dr. George Tiller's clinic along with referring physicians.
If Dr. George Tiller's name sound familiar, it should. This is the second such grand jury investigation of his practice since 2006. Dr. Tiller and his clinic have been the center of the battle for abortion rights for many years. In 1985 his clinic was bombed, in 1993 he was shot in both arms, by convicted "abortion terrorist" Rachelle Shannon.
The grand jury is investigating whether Kansas state laws are being violated by the clinic in providing late term abortions. This marks the continuing change in the abortion opponents tactics from the "Decade of Fear" in the nineties, when 7 people were killed, to currently trying to legitimise their opposition through court action where they feel there is a "friendly" judicial atmosphere.
More info below the fold.
The reason I say this is the result of a change in tactics, though 2007 did see an increase in clinic related violence, is that this is the second grand jury convened against Dr. Tiller and his clinic by citizen petition rather than criminal investigation since 2006. The previous investigation led the former Attorney General Phill Kline to issue 30 misdemeanor charges against Dr. Tiller before leaving office last year. All charges were dismissed in a issue over jurisdiction.
Abortion opponents forced Sedgwick County to convene the grand jury by submitting petitions. Dr. Tiller's lawyers then asked the Supreme Court to quash the subpoenas. While they have not been quashed, the subpoenas have been blocked while the court considers what Chief Justice Kay McFarland terms "significant issues" that Dr. Tiller's challenge raises about patient privacy and a grand jury's power to subpoena medical records.
The prosecutor raised issues saying that blocking the subpooenas would severely impair the grand jury's function, as the grand jury has a limited term. The Supreme Court addressed this by saying the grand jury's term could be extended.
Kansans For Life Executive Director Mary Kay Culp called the decision "extremely disappointing". "His lawyers say they are worried about women's privacy. They are worried about protecting Dr. Tiller."
The law allowing citizens to request a grand jury be empanelled dates from 1887. Originally written to allow citizens to investigate government corruption in the age of railroads, only five states, other than Kansas allow citizen empanellment, all in the West or Southwest: Oklahoma, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada and Nebraska.
The anti-abortion movement rediscovered the law when David Gittrich used it in 2006 to force an investigation into the death of a Texas woman who had an abortion at Tiller's clinic. Though the grand jury failed to return an indictment, people noticed.
Said Gittrich: "I was inspired by God to use the grand jury."
The patient rcords at the center of the controversy would be edited to exclude the woman's name and would carry patient identification numbers. However the request for referring physicians and that in the previous investigation the prosecutor was able to determine patient names leads Tiller's lawyers to argue this protection is limited.
To be fair a spokesman for the previous investigating prosecutor states no patients were ever identified.
Chief Justice McFarland has given a deadline of Feb. 11 for the chief judge of Sedgewick County and the retired judge presiding over the grand jury to file objections. Those judges then have until Feb. 25 to file a response.