Aug

23

New Judge Appointed to Dr. Tiller Case

Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, courts, reproductive justice  | Posted by Cara |

For those of you following the case against late-term abortion provider Dr. Tiller, there is news.

After the previous judge in the case resigned, a new judge has been appointed.

Judge Owens, the new judge in the case, was appointed by Chief Judge Michael Corrigan. A former district attorney and a state judge for the last 16 years, Owens has been more evenly received by both sides of the abortion debate, despite a public record showing he opposes abortion rights. Owens previously served as a county Republican chairman and told the Wichita Eagle that his “personal beliefs are pro-life” and that “it’s time for the state to regulate third-trimester abortions.” Still, Owens has not been actively anti-choice; Kansas Coalition for Life Chair Mark Gietzen told the Wichita Eagle that Owens has never “attended a pro-life meeting or a pro-life function… The crowd he hangs with is more [on] the moderate side.” Dan Monnat, a lawyer for Dr. Tiller, told the Wichita Eagle that he thinks Owens will be “perfectly capable of fairly hearing the case.”

So there you go. Of course, I would prefer a judge with a pro-choice history, but that would definitely cause the antis to start howling. I’m also not so certain that the judge’s personal belief system on the case matters so much, as long as he has a history of being impartial. And I don’t think that being anti-choice would necessarily cause him to rule against Dr. Tiller– after all, the case is not about whether the abortions that Dr. Tiller performs should or should not be legal, it’s about the interpretation of a bureaucratic anti-choice law about his financial relationships. The problem with the previous judge was that he not only helped to craft the ambiguous law, he also had a history of bias directly against Dr. Tiller. If Dr. Tiller’s lawyers– who I assume (I hope!) know a hell of a lot more than I do– say that this guy is okay, he’s fine with me, too.

You can find more information about how you can directly help Dr. Tiller at the end of this post.


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