Kline investigates

Given that the numbers coming out of Tiller’s clinic had increased since the tougher law had been written, Kline began to review the KDHE reports to see just how Tiller had been able to circumvent the law.  If Kline had not acted, no one would have.  Only the attorney general and the Board of Healing Arts have routine access to these reports, and the Board had repeatedly given Tiller a pass. 

The back of this one-page KDHE abortion report asks the doctor how he verified if the baby was “viable”—that is, able to live outside the womb at the time of the abortion.

The form then asks the doctor to check one of two boxes: one if the abortion was necessary to prevent the “patient’s death”; the second if it were necessary to avoid “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

To date, not a single doctor in Kansas has checked the “prevent patient’s death” box. All check the “impairment” box. The next question on the form asks the “reasons for determination” of death or impairment.  The following question asks the “basis” for that same determination.

In reviewing the KDHE reports, Kline noticed that in the spaces provided for “reasons” and “basis” Tiller offered no medical diagnosis.  He simply reiterated the wording of the law, namely  “to avoid substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” 

Given the gravity of the procedure—that is the taking of a viable baby’s life—Kline believed that some measure of respect for the legal process was due.  There was only one way to assess the legitimacy of the work behind that process, and that was to subpoena the patient files.

The files in question were to be found at two Kansas abortion clinics — Tiller’s Women's Health Services in Wichita and Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood in Overland Park.  Both clinics, as Kline suspected, were politically wired.   Using the courts and their allies in government and the media, the clinics would launch a fierce campaign to derail the investigation and define Kline as a religious fanatic, a hayseed Torquemada.

“It is unlawful to refuse to allow law enforcement officers to inspect wildlife in possession,” reads the Kansas state law on fishing, a law that, as fishermen know, is vigorously enforced.  Before his ordeal was through, Kline would envy the enforcement powers of the state’s game wardens.

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