Did you know that the Kansas Attorney General and the Kansas Supreme Court continue to protect women's privacy against anti-choice efforts to expose women's medical records?

As part of an ongoing anti-choice crusade to discourage legal abortion, a Kansas grand jury has been trying to get a look at the private medical records of certain women who have had abortions at Dr. George Tiller's Wichita clinic, Women's Health Care Services.  The grand jury is trying to show that the clinic disobeyed a Kansas abortion law. 

Kansas allows citizens to ask a district court to convene a grand jury, and anti-choice groups successfully did so.  The grand jury began investigating Tiller's clinic in January 2008, and issued subpoenas demanding the clinic release the medical records of over two thousand former patients.  However, in February 2008, Kansas's Attorney General Stephen Six asked the Kansas Supreme Court to order that the grand jury's request be set aside.  The Court agreed, and ruled that the request did not provide sufficient protection for patient privacy.  The Court also called into doubt the authority of the grand jury itself.

Roxana Hegeman, 1887 Law Gives Citizens Power in Abortion Fight, Assoc. Press, Jan. 18, 2008; Carl Manning, Kan. Court Blocks Abortion Grand Jury, Assoc. Press, Feb. 5, 2008; Ron Sylvester, High Court Postpones Subpoena on Tiller, Wichita Eagle, Feb. 6, 2008; John Hanna, Attorney General's Office Subpoenaed by Tiller Grand Jury, Assoc. Press, Feb. 6, 2008; John Hanna, Kansas Court Blocks Subpoena to State AG, Assoc. Press, Feb. 19, 2008; Ron Sylvester, Court Stalls 2nd Grand Jury Subpoena, Wichita Eagle, Feb. 20, 2008, at 5B.