The Law's A Funny Thing

Laws are a funny things, aren’t they? Take the laws concerning late term abortions in Kansas for instance. In 1998, laws were passed specifically prohibiting an abortion after 21 weeks of pregnancy. The line was drawn at 21 weeks because it’s been proven that if given the chance, a baby can survive outside it’s mothers womb after that time. The only exception to the law, is if the continuation of the pregnancy could lead to death or “substantial and irreversible” harm to a “major bodily function” of the mother. Sounds reasonable and pretty clear to me.
Included in these laws are reporting requirements. If a late term abortion is determined to be necessary to save the life of a mother, two doctors, who have no financial or professional ties are required to report to the State what medical condition existed that led them to this decision.
Since the Kansas law took effect in 1998, George Tiller, of Wichita has preformed over 2,600 late term abortions. In almost every case he simply states it was necessary to save the woman from “substantial and irreversible” harm to a “major bodily function.” He’s simply repeating what the law says. To be fair, in a few cases he has actually stated that the late term abortion was necessary to save the woman because of mental health issues. Yeah, the woman was depressed. It was revealed a few weeks ago that one of these women who suffered from the mental health issue was depressed because her pregnancy was going to interfere with a rock concert she wanted to attend.
There are laws on the books that says it’s illegal to have sex with a child. There are also laws on the books requiring medical professionals to report suspected cases of child abuse to the state. I assume raping a 10 year-old girl would fall into the category of child abuse. During Phil Cline’s investigation of Tiller, it was revealed that girls as young as 10 and 12-years old had had abortions at his clinic, and no report was ever forwarded to the state. Now I’m not an attorney or anything, but it sure looks like a few laws were broken on this one. To me, it looks like a child rapist was able to cover his crime by aborting the evidence with no questions asked.
We have elected officials who are charged with enforcing the laws of the land. Their job is to enforce all laws, not just the one’s they agree with. Take Paul Morrison for instance. He dropped all charges against Tiller as soon as he took office as our new Attorney General. He said he’d conduct his own investigation. After seven or eight months in office he did finally come up with his own charges against Tiller. The best he could force himself to come up with was 19 lousy misdemeanor charges of having financial ties with the doctor Tiller had collaborated with.
Sorry Paul, but there’s another law on the books you’re not going to like. It took effect in 1970, and it allows the citizens of Kansas to demand the seating of a grand jury to investigate crimes when they’re not satisfied with the job our elected officials are doing. I don’t know exactly how it works. But it takes a certain percentage of registered voters to sign a petition to call for a grand jury. In the case of Segwick County the percentage they needed came out to 2,449 signatures. In the end they presented the county with 6,963 signatures, or almost three times more than were required. What’s that tell you about your job approval rating in Segwick County Paul?
The petition specifically states that District Attorney, Nola Foulston and anyone associated with her office should not be allowed to participate in the investigation because of her personal friendship with Tiller. Almost 7,000 citizens signed this petition. What’s that say about her job approval rating? Yeah, the law’s a funny thing.
Kevin McGinty can be reached at: kevinmcginty@sbcglobal.net