As we reported last week, Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline wants 90 medical records of underaged girls and some women who have had abortions late-term for the women. Pro-choice groups and the liberal media are fighting Kline, saying privacy trumps criminal investigations. Let's take a look at the facts and put aside partisan hysteria.
Kansas authorities are saying they caught the so-called BTK (search) serial killer because they obtained the medical records of his daughter without her consent, got the family DNA (search) and linked it to the crime scenes, thus Dennis Rader was apprehended and subsequently confessed to mass murder. If Kansas authorities were denied the woman's medical records, Rader would not have even been caught and likely would have continued killing.
Does The Los Angeles Times (search) not understand that? I think they do. But in the case of abortion, they don't care. A woman's right to abort a fetus trumps the rape of children and the possible murder of babies in late term.
More facts, 78 girls under the age of 15 had abortions in Kansas in 2003. Kansas law says sexual intercourse with a child under 14 is rape, not statutory rape, rape. Are you telling me the Kansas authorities have no right to investigate those rapes? Is that what The L.A. Times and The New York Times are saying?
On the subject of late-term abortions, it's against the law to kill a fetus in Kansas after 22 weeks unless there's irreversible harm to the mother's health. Kline believes Dr. George Tiller may have broken the law and wants to see records of questionable case. Kline says the names of the women involved can be kept confidential. He just wants a Kansas court, not himself, the court, to look over the abortion procedures. But The L.A. Times and The New York Times say no, Kline has no right to investigate that area, no right to see if Dr. Tiller is obeying the law.
Remember, authorities say the doctor is doing 500 late-term abortions every year, 500. And nobody can find out the condition of the women he's operating on. This is just insane. There has to be oversight on child rape and late-term abortion. That's the law. I realize there's fanaticism over abortion on both sides but private medical records can't be used to hide criminal activity. The courts have ruled against that time and time again.
We hope the Kansas Supreme Court continues that tradition. We're glad authorities got the medical records of the BTK killer's daughter. We're glad he's off the street. Brutal criminals cannot be allowed sanctuary in the doctor's office.
And that's The Memo.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Our pal, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, spoke to some fourth graders the other day. When asked by one of them what one item he would take to a desert island, the mayor replied a bottle of gin. When quizzed about his hobbies, Goodman said drinking.
Hey, Mr. Mayor: Sober up. These are kids you're talking to, not high rollers at the Bellagio.
It might be ridiculous. Vegas.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox