The race for Attorney General in Kansas is being fought between the incumbent, Republican Phill Kline, and his challenger, Democrat Paul Morrison. One of the issues that divides the candidates is whether the government has a right to seek patient records from abortion clinics.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue weighed in on this issue today:
“Ever since the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church became front-page news in 2002, mandatory reporting laws have been broached by many state lawmakers: such laws require all professionals who have knowledge of sexual relations between an adult and a minor to report such cases to the authorities. And at every turn, the opposition has come from Planned Parenthood. Why? Because it is well known that its providers learn of cases of child rape on a regular basis, and it would hurt their lucrative business if they had to first report such instances to the police. In other words, it is not the Catholic Church that is standing in the way of legal reform—it is Planned Parenthood.
“During his tenure as Johnson County District Attorney, Paul Morrison found it quite useful to have the information provided by a paternity test to prosecute men who had taken sexual liberties with young women. But now that he is in bed with his friends at Planned Parenthood, he wants to stonewall efforts that would provide medical evidence taken from abortion clinics. He’s not dumb: He knows that all such roads ultimately lead the cops to knock on Planned Parenthood’s door.
“On February 26, 2005, Morrison told the Kansas City Star that ‘if there are kids that are getting abortions at the tender ages of 10, 11, 12, 13 years old and they’re not being reported to law enforcement that’s a big problem.’ Sure is. A 2002 study by Life Dynamics found that among pregnant girls aged 15 or younger, 60 to 80 percent were impregnated by adult men. They further concluded that Planned Parenthood was providing cover for these men. And these are the ones Morrison, a professed Roman Catholic, wants to protect!”
