One for the books

Abortion: With a 107-count criminal complaint, Planned Parenthood and one of the nation’s toughest laws on abortion face landmark test | Lynn Vincent

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park

How can an attorney general exonerate a group while a district attorney files a 107-count criminal complaint against the same group, when both attorneys examined the same set of evidence? That's the question some Kansans are asking since Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline on Oct. 15 filed a 107-count criminal complaint against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (PPKM).

The charges are based on name-redacted patient records Kline obtained by court order in 2006 while serving as Kansas attorney general. The complaint lists one felony charge—"making a false information" (23 counts)—and three misdemeanor charges: failure to maintain required health records (26 counts); failure to determine fetal viability (29 counts); and unlawful late-term abortion (29 counts).