Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Wichita,
KS (LifeNews.com) — A Kansas judge ruled against late-term abortion
practitioner George Tiller and his request to declare Kansas’ ban
on most late-term abortions unconstitutional. District Court Judge
Clark Owens determined that the post-viability abortion ban is legitimate.

Judge
Owens said the law “survives all of the constitutional challenges”
Tiller’s lawyers presented.

As
a result, the Tiller motion to dismiss the 19 charges filed against
him by the state attorney general was denied.

Former
attorney general Paul Morrison filed the charges against Tiller, saying
he violated state law requiring a second physician to sign off on
the validity of the late-term abortions.

Tiller
allegedly has violated the component of the state’s late-term
abortion law requiring the abortion practitioner not to have a relationship
with the second physician. He got abortion practitioner Ann Kristin
Neuhaus, with whom he is a financial partner, to sign off on the disputed
late-term abortions.

The
second physician is supposed to validate whether the mother will face
“substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily
function” without the abortion — the lone times when a late-term
abortion can be done legally.

Now,
Tiller will face a trial on the charges and, if he’s convicted, could
face as much as 19 years in prison with one year for each guilty conviction.

Kansans
for Life director Mary Kay Culp responded to the decision in comments
to LifeNews.com.

“If
ever a case needed to go to trial it is this one,” she said.

“The
law says the second doctor required to approve the abortion of a viable
baby cannot be legally or financially affiliated with the abortionist,”
Culp explained. “Not only did Tiller repeatedly use Kristen Neuhaus,
a doctor twice called a public danger by our board of healing arts,
but records indicate that for four years her sole income came from
her association with him.”

Operation
Rescue President Troy Newman, also sent comments to LifeNews.com about
the decision.

“We
have just one thing to say to Tiller today and that is, ‘See you in
court,’” he said.

“Today’s
ruling by Judge Owens vindicates our efforts to bring Tiller to justice.
All along, we knew that it wasn’t the law that was faulty, but it
was Tiller’s interpretation of the law that was faulty. This gives
us a glimmer of hope that we could eventually see some shred of justice,”
he explained.

Tiller’s
lawyers challenged the late-term abortion law saying the requirement
for an independent second physician is unconstitutional and that it
allegedly infringes on women’s so-called abortion rights.

Their
request to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds has been pending
since a November hearing.

Judge Owens said he wasn’t ready to move forward with the case because
the attorneys involved were busy with the grand jury.

Called
by Kansans for Life, the jury did not indict Tiller but the pro-life
group contends that’s because they
weren’t given full information.