Kan. Abortion Doctor Charged, Atty Says KS Attorney General files criminal [View All]

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charges against abortion provider Tiller.

TOPEKA, Kan., Dec. 22, 2006
By JOHN HANNA Associated Press Writer
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(AP) Kansas' attorney general, a vocal abortion opponent, has filed criminal charges against Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, the doctor's attorney said Friday.

Attorney Dan Monnat did not identify the charges, and officials in Attorney General Phill Kline's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Kline, who lost his re-election bid in November and leaves office in three weeks, has been investigating whether Tiller and other abortion providers performed illegal late-term abortions in Kansas or failed to report suspected child abuse as required by law.

He waged a successful two-year legal battle to obtain the records of 90 patients from Tiller's Wichita clinic and a clinic operated in Overland Park by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

Since the election, abortion rights activists have expected him to move against Tiller and perhaps Planned Parenthood, as well.

The incoming attorney general, Democrat Paul Morrison, has criticized Kline for seeking the records, describing it as an invasion of the patients' privacy. But after the election, Morrison wouldn't say if he would drop any investigation Kline started against the clinics.

"The filing of criminal charges by Phill Kline is the last gasp of a defeated and discredited politician," Monnat said. "Rather than executing his duty as a prosecutor to see that justice is done, he has chosen to engage in a malicious and spiteful prosecution on the eve of Christmas."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/22/ap/national/mainD8M60NIG0.shtml