Contact: Troy Newman, President, 316-841-1700; Cheryl Sullenger, Outreach & Media Coordinator, 316-516-3034; both with Operation Rescue, info@operationrescue.org
WICHITA, Kans., April 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- Operation Rescue has made a formal written request to Attorney General Paul Morrison to enforce the Kansas ban on post viability abortion in compliance with last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on partial birth abortions. A similar request was also sent to District Attorney Nola Foulston.
The request does not focus on the grisly abortion procedure, however, but on the precedent-setting ruling from the High Court, which stated that a lack of health exceptions in laws regulating abortions does not create an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions.
The Kansas post-viability abortion ban, K.S.A. 65-6703, has been interpreted to include a "mental health" exception ever since former Attorney General Carla Stovall issued a non-binding opinion in 2000, indicating that without the exception for "mental health" risks, the ban was unconstitutional.
"The Stovall opinion interjected a mental health exception into a law that contained no such language. Her excuse for doing so was that restrictions on abortions had to contain a mental health exception in order to be considered constitutional," Newman explained. "However, in light of last week's Supreme Court decision, that interpretation is now without basis in current law."
Newman's letter to Morrison, also asked for new investigations of late-term abortionist George R. Tiller and his employee, abortionist LeRoy Carhart. It stated:
Therefore, we respectfully request that your office immediately enforce K.S.A. 65-6703 on its face without the previously presumed exception for "mental health."
We ask for an immediate investigation into the abortion business of George R. Tiller for violating K.S.A. 65-6703 from April 18, 2007, when the new law went into effect, until present.
We are also asking for a separate investigation into all abortions done by LeRoy Carhart at Tiller's abortion facility located at 5107 E. Kellogg in Wichita, KS, from April 18, 2007 until present, for possible violations of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which is now the law of the land. As a plaintiff on Gonzales v. Carhart, it is imperative to insure that he is following the law with which he has so adamantly disagreed.
Tiller does post-viability abortions for mental health reasons. He was charged with the commission in illegal late-term abortions by former Attorney General Phill Kline, but those charges were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.
Read full text of Newman letter to Morrison
Read full text of K.S.A 65-6703
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
