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The House gave final approval Friday to the measure, which blocks tax breaks for abortion providers and outlaws abortions performed solely because of the baby’s sex.
The measure also declares that life begins “at fertilization,” language that abortion opponents call a statement of principle and not an outright ban on abortion, though the bill’s opponents are skeptical.
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143 women were certified for abortion at Kansas clinics this year and did not return to obtain the procedure, compared to 182 in 2011. KDHE does not collect reasons for these “no-returns.” Kansas requires “Woman’s Right to Know” (WRTK) informed consent materials be accessed 24 hours prior to abortion, whether received from the abortion clinic at her initial visit, or through the state hotline, or just by viewing online at https://www.womansrighttoknow.org.
It is not unreasonable to surmise that the WRTK materials both contribute to “no-returns” as well as deter some women from ever entering a clinic. A woman contemplating abortion may fear a lack of support for her pregnancy needs, or be responding to subtle or overt pressure from her family or the father of the child. In the WRTK info, she finds:
fetal development explanations with high definition real-time sonography; a directory of statewide locations for free individual ultrasounds and 80 pregnancy maintenance centers; links to assistance for medically-challenging pregnancies; warnings that coerced abortions are illegal.
OTHER STATS:
All categories saw a decrease except “RU486″ abortions by pill, which rose from 20% to 30% of total Kansas abortions. This rate exceeds the 2012 CDC chemical abortion national average of 17.4%. Kansas enacted a ban on chemical abortion obtained “by webcam” in the 2011 clinic regulation law, which is not in effect due to litigation.
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Photo Credit: Steve Schapiro/CorbisTruman Capote’s masterwork of murder, “In Cold Blood,” cemented two reputations when first published almost five decades ago: his own, as a literary innovator, and detective Alvin Dewey Jr.’s as the most famous Kansas lawman since Wyatt Earp. But new evidence undermines Mr. Capote’s claim that his best seller was an “immaculately factual” recounting of the bloody slaughter of the Clutter family in their Kansas farmhouse.
It also calls into question the image of Mr. Dewey as the brilliant, haunted hero. A long-forgotten cache of Kansas Bureau of Investigation documents from the investigation into the deaths suggests that the events described in two crucial chapters of the 1966 book differ significantly from what actually happened.
Separately, a contract reviewed and authenticated by The Wall Street Journal shows that Mr. Capote in 1965 required Columbia Pictures to offer Mr. Dewey’s wife a job as a consultant to the film version of his book for a fee far greater than the U.S. median family income that year.
The details are to be found in papers from the Clutter case that a now-deceased KBI agent, Harold Nye, carried home with him years ago. Those documents, reviewed in August by the Journal, are the subject of litigation between the adult son of Mr. Nye, who hopes to publish or sell them, and the KBI, which claims to own the material.
Today, the KBI declines to explain the five-day delay in visiting the suspect’s farmhouse or to answer other questions delivered via email as well as by hand to a receptionist at its Topeka headquarters. Over the decades, literary sleuths have turned up numerous journalistic sins in “In Cold Blood,” ranging from minor inaccuracies to outright fabrication. The latest revelations, though, are particularly damaging because they undermine one of the longest-standing defenses of the book: that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation hailed the book as true. Mr. Dewey many times called the book accurate.
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It’s a mixed up, jumbled up, shook up world these days, but especially for William Marotta.
Marotta, a Kansas City man responded to a Craigslist ad 3 years ago placed there by a lesbian couple. The couple was looking for a sperm donor to help them conceive a child. Marotta, the Good Samaritan, was up for the task.
Marotta and the couple signed an agreement stating his responsibilities for the future child stopped with his donation. He was not to be involved in the raising of the child, have any financial responsibility, or have any contact with the child…..Pretty much a standard agreement for this type of situation.
But the lesbian couple, broke up and then sought welfare assistance from the state of Kansas. This set off an investigation by the state on behalf of its taxpayers who have to foot the bill…and the trail lead to Marottas front door.
Evidently the state of Kansas doesn’t think Marottas responsibilities stopped after his donation and have decided to make him financially responsible for the child.
The state of Kansas says since the impregnation procedure wasn’t done under the auspices of a Dr’s supervision, the agreement the couple and Marotta have, is not valid.
Marotta has lawyered up and already claims the state has no proof it is his child, since no DNA tests have been performed. Besides, it’s not fair since he had a written agreement with the couple.
The state of Kansas is claiming it’s not fair for the citizens of Kansas to pay for other peoples children.
Hillary Clinton popularized the often repeated quote “it takes a village to raise a child.” Evidently Kansas doesn’t agree with the “village” meme and they want these 3 villagers to pay for their own children.
Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner, the couple who have now separated, plan to help Marotta fight the state’s decision to force him to pay child support.
These three did create a human life. Is it fair that the state requests they be financially responsible for it and not expect the taxpayers to pick up the tab? We all have rights, but there are responsibilities as well.
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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.
Citing a wave of angry backlash, a Kansas man on Friday withdrew a petition in which he argued that President Obama should be removed from the state’s election ballot because he did not meet citizenship requirements.
The challenge filed this week by Joe Montgomery of Manhattan, Kan., prompted state election authorities to seek a certified copy of Mr. Obama’s birth certificate and reignited long-running conspiracy theories that the president was not born in the United States. The state will continue to try to obtain the birth certificate, and officials will meet on Monday as scheduled to close the case officially. But without the petition, Mr. Obama will remain on the ballot, Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach told The Associated Press.
Mr. Montgomery, the communications director for the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, explained his decision in an e-mail to Mr. Kobach.
“There has been a great deal of animosity and intimidation directed not only at me, but at people around me, who are both personal and professional associations,” he wrote. He added that he did not “wish to burden anyone with more of this negative reaction.”
After a hearing on Thursday, the state’s Objections Board, led by Mr. Kobach, a conservative Republican, said it needed more information before issuing a ruling.
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Planned Parenthood was investigated for illegal late-term abortion and failure to report child rape as required by law. Evidence obtained revealed that during a time the abortion provider performed hundreds of abortions on children 13 years of age and younger Planned Parenthood only reported one case of child molestation. The evidence included witness statements and reports from former Planned Parenthood employees.
This portion of the case died due to obstruction by the Administration of former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and former Attorney General Morrison who was recruited by Ms. Sebelius to run for Attorney General. Ms. Sebelius is a political beneficiary of Planned Parenthood.
Other evidence indicated that Planned Parenthood lied about the gestational age of the fetus in order to justify an abortion. Kansas law allowed abortions on a non-viable fetus for any reason. State law, however, severely restricted late-term abortions on viable fetuses.
The case filed against Planned Parenthood alleged that Planned Parenthood falsely reported the gestational age of the fetus in order to claim the fetus was not viable. The evidence demonstrating this conduct was present in every abortion record obtained. These allegations were supported by the expert report of Dr. T. Murphy Goodwin, one of our nation’s premiere neonatologists.
The District Attorney announced today that he was dismissing these charges because it was his opinion that the gestational age stated by Planned Parenthood arguably indicated the fetus was viable. His statement misses the point and indicated he doesn’t understand the case.
First, the District Attorney improperly defines “viability” but more importantly he completely ignores the allegation that Planned Parenthood lied about the gestational age of the fetus.
The District Attorney also did not follow up on evidence that demonstrated that Planned Parenthood was illegally referring patients to Dr. Tiller to perform abortions Planned Parenthood knew to be illegal. Planned Parenthood records demonstrated that some of their patients, according to Planned Parenthood, were carrying a healthy viable late-term fetus. Planned Parenthood also reported the mothers were physically and mentally healthy.
Under Kansas law an abortion of a healthy viable fetus is illegal unless the birth of the child would cause the mother “severe and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” Despite the fact that Planned Parenthood concluded the mother was healthy and the fetus was viable, Planned Parenthood, nevertheless, referred the patients to Dr. Tiller who performed illegal abortions on these patients. This evidence was not pursued by the District Attorney.
The investigation included employee and patient informants who, to my knowledge, were never contacted by the District Attorney’s office.
This evidence was reviewed by independent District Judges who found probable cause to believe Planned Parenthood committed crimes. In fact, in every single instance the evidence was reviewed, probable cause was found. Yet now, none of these charges will ever reach open court.
The law allows a prosecutor the discretion to abandon prosecutions against powerful defendants – even when judges have found probable cause for the case to move to trial. This fact, however, does not make this decision correct but only demonstrates the District Attorney acted out of political fear rather than a sound understanding of the law, the facts or the case.
Dr. Goodwin determined the gram weight of the aborted fetus by analyzing the pathology report. The gram weight indicated the fetus was much later in gestation than Planned Parenthood claimed and it was Dr. Goodwin’s conclusion that every single abortion performed in the 29 records obtained was on a viable fetus and, therefore, was illegal.
This allegation was also supported by other witnesses and a review of the files from Dr. Tiller’s clinic in Wichita. Doctors who performed abortions for Planned Parenthood would also perform abortions at Dr. Tiller’s clinics. Eyewitnesses and records revealed that when those doctors were at Dr. Tiller’s clinic they engaged in the same conduct – misrepresenting the gestational age of the fetus in order to justify illegal late-term abortions.
It is not surprising the District Attorney does not understand the charges as, to my knowledge, his office did not contact any of these witnesses, obtain any of the records relating to Dr. Tiller’s clinic, never acted to preserve the testimony of Dr. Goodwin nor tried to contact anyone involved in the initial investigation.
The news release also claims that it was necessary to dismiss some of the older charges because the statute of limitations prohibited the filing of those charges. This statement ignores the claim that Planned Parenthood misrepresented the gestational age of the fetus thus tolling the statute of limitations.
In November of last year the District Attorney announced that he was dismissing the 23 felony charges against Planned Parenthood because documents key to that prosecution were destroyed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 2005, at a time the agency was managed by former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.
Mr. Howe also announced that Sebelius appointee, former Attorney General Stephen Six, destroyed other key evidence in May of 2009 at a time Mr. Six knew the records were part of a criminal prosecution against Planned Parenthood. This obstruction by the Sebelius Administration and her appointees was harmful to the case but not fatal. The necessary records to proceed were in the possession of Shawnee County District Court Judge Richard Anderson who recently reported that Mr. Howe’s office never made any written request for the records. The District Attorney’s office also had a set of copies.
Last week the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts posted the final revocation order for the medical license of abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus. While Neuhaus is not a household name, her revocation has national repercussions in the abortion battle.
Neuhaus was a former associate of George Tiller, who once operated the largest late-term abortion clinic outside Communist China. His business, which specialized in doing the latest of late-term abortions and drew clients from all over the globe, earned Wichita the dubious distinction as the Abortion Capital of the World.
After Neuhaus closed her own abortion business in Lawrence, she began working with Tiller to provide referrals for abortions on viable babies past 22-weeks gestation. Kansas law required that a second physician had to determine that post-viability abortions were medically necessary in that continuation of the pregnancy would result in maternal death or a “substantial and irreversible impairment to a major bodily function” of the pregnant woman. A former State Attorney General, Carla Stoval, issued an opinion that “major bodily function” must include mental health considerations.
Testimony at a Board disciplinary hearing showed that Neuhaus was regularly contacted by Tiller’s office and told to report to his Wichita abortion clinic where she conducted screenings on potential late-term abortion patients for the purpose of determining if they met the legal standard that would allow an abortion to continue. However, the Board found that Neuhaus negligently conducted those screenings. Her inadequate and poorly documented interviews led her to determine that normal life issues, such as frustration at not being able to buy a new computer, play sports, or participate in rock concerts due to pregnancies that had already advanced into the third trimester, were indications of mental illnesses that justified abortions. Many times, Neuhaus phoned in her exams. In some cases, there was no evidence that she even interviewed the patients at all.
Her mental health diagnoses were reached via a computer training program called “PsychManager Lite” wherein she would input answers to often vague yes-or-no questions and the program would calculate a diagnosis. Her phony diagnoses were rubber-stamps meant to ensure lucrative late-term abortions took place.
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Photo credit: CNS News
A funny to tribute to our nation’s farmers. This video has received over 3 million hits in just a few days. From my birth state of Kansas.
Photo Credit: Warren Long