Kansas Supreme Court Protects Patient Privacy

Washington, DC- NARAL Pro-Choice America hailed the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision to stop Attorney General Phill Kline’s abuse of his prosecutorial powers for a political fishing expedition.  

The Kansas Supreme Court’s decision now sends the case back to a lower court judge to examine “the soundness of any legal interpretation on which the attorney general depends.”  Even if the lower court determines that the attorney general has the right to see portions of medical records, patient-identifying information must be redacted.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the state Supreme Court’s decision represented a victory for medical privacy.

“The Kansas Supreme Court drew a line in the sand today and stopped Phill Kline’s anti-choice fishing expedition that would jeopardize the confidentiality of women’s medical histories,” Keenan said.  “All Americans have the expectation that an attorney general will uphold the law and protect our fundamental freedoms, including the right to privacy. Today’s initial victory in Kansas does not mean we can let our guard down. Remember, when John Ashcroft was Bush’s attorney general, he attempted to invade the medical records of women who had accessed abortion care. This tactic of harassment and intimidation is now being copied in the states. The Kansas court may have halted for now Kline’s blatant push to violate women’s privacy, but he and his far-right cronies are so hostile to our fundamental freedoms that they’ll keep trying to invade our privacy.  We must be vigilant in safeguarding women’s medical information.”

Last spring, Mr. Kline subpoenaed the medical records of 90 women who had had abortions at two Kansas clinics.  If the court had permitted Kline’s politically motivated pursuit of these records, the attorney general could have access to the patients’ sexual history, birth control use, and psychological information of these women. 

Keenan said Kline was among 18 attorneys general who have anti-choice records.

She said Kline’s actions, and the threat posed by other equally anti-choice attorneys general, underscored the need to protect personal privacy and should spur Congress to pass the Patients' Privacy Protection Act, which amends the Federal Rules of Evidence to explicitly protect private medical information from disclosure in federal court.

Contact:
Ted Miller, 202.973.3032