Abortion Foes Question Dropped Charges
Associtated Press - Sun 12:47 PM 09/02/2012
Abortion opponents are turning on a Kansas prosecutor who abandoned a high-profile criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Abortion opponents are turning on a Kansas prosecutor who abandoned a high-profile criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Some publicly question explanations Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe has given for dropping the most serious charges.
Anti-abortion activists had seen Howe as sympathetic and well-intentioned. But the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue has called for Howe to resign in the days since the last charges were dismissed against the clinic in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park.
The clinic once faced 107 charges, including 23 felonies, accusing it of falsifying documents and performing illegal late-term abortions, allegations it strongly disputed. Advocates on both sides of the abortion debate believed it was the first criminal prosecution of a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Howe said he's not surprised by the criticism.
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The_Law
Monday 3 September 2012 09:32 Report this comment
If you don't have the evidence, you don't have a case. This was a witch hunt. Abortion has been settled by Roe v. Wade, it can not be banned without a Constitutional Amendment, something that has happened only 27 times with James Madison responsible for drawing up the first ten. You want to reduce abortions? Do it through education, not protests. Roe, who brought the suit, had her baby and switched sides, FWIW. Even with a ban, there will still be women who will seek abortions.
RedNeckWatch
Monday 3 September 2012 13:58 Report this comment
Well said The_Law. You cannot reason with hate-filled ideologues.
jimdingo
Monday 3 September 2012 14:40 Report this comment
It was a witch hunt. Leave the law as it stands. It is the woman's body let her regulate it. All of this do good rhetoric by the right and whoever else is really beating a dead horse. Isn't operation rescue the outfit that had children laying in front of cars at Tiller's clinic years back. If it is, terry randall is as much a terrorist as the taliban the American forces are fighting overseas.
RedNeckWatch
Monday 3 September 2012 15:41 Report this comment
jimdingo you are so right. I once heard a Tiller critic on the radio and a woman called in and told he could have an opinion on abortion and womens reproductive health AFTER he delivered a 9 lb ham out his butt without anesthesia. THought it was a point well taken.
troy
Monday 3 September 2012 16:36 Report this comment
Let's all go kill some babies!
ConservativeR
Monday 3 September 2012 23:27 Report this comment
I feel we should leave this issue to women and God. The Supreme Court is not going to change its mind so we should move on to other more pressing issues, like the economy and ending the wars. Some very zealot people took over the public voice of the Republican party, but do not speak for a majority of members. This is a Republican town and I have yet to meet but a couple of members who agree with the platform on abortion and reproductive rights. Radical platforms lose elections. Dropping the charges was the right thing to do.