Kansas Attorney General Investigates Young Minors' Abortions.

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has ordered two abortion clinics to provide information about abortions performed after 22 weeks, as he looks for evidence of child abuse "or a clinic who potentially has violated the late-term abortion law," Kline's spokesman, Whitney Watson, told the Kansas City Star.

"When a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old child is pregnant, under Kansas law that child has been raped, and as the state's chief law enforcement official it is my obligation to investigate child rape in order to protect Kansas children," Kline told reporters at a February 24 press conference. "There are two things that child predators want, access to children and secrecy. As attorney general, I'm bound and determined not to give them either."

A Kansas law passed in 1998 prohibits abortions performed after 22 weeks unless the "abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman or that a continuation of the pregnancy will cause a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman." State law also requires all health care providers to report cases of suspected child abuse.

Kline's request came to light when the clinics - - Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, which is owned by abortionist George Tiller, and Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri - - asked the Kansas Supreme Court February 23 to block Kline's investigation, the Wichita Eagle reported. Attorney General Kline's efforts began last fall when Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson ordered the clinics to release the information.

But the court also issued a gag order and sealed all legal documents. Thus Anderson's October 2004 order did not become public until late February when Tiller's attorneys asked the state High Court to block what they characterized as a "secret inquisition."

Kline insists that statistics reported by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment justify further investigation into child abuse and abortion. "The public record in Kansas demonstrates this," Kline said on MSNBC's The Abrams Report. "I'm not revealing anything relating to the investigation, that in the year 2003 alone, 78 14-year-old children - - 14-year-old and younger children in Kansas - - had abortions. That is rape under Kansas law."

The abortion clinics accused Kline of seeking to violate their patients' privacy ...