What’s at Risk in Kansas

Today the Kansas Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of whether or not embattled late-term abortion provider Dr. Tiller should be forced to turn over the medical records of 2,000 patients. This battle has been going on since 2006, but has been stalled and had verdicts flipped on technicalities. The women whose medical records are being used in a game of tug-of-war by the state had this to say:

The patients, using pseudonyms to protect their identity, argue that the subpoenas represent an unconstitutional intrusion into their privacy, and that the grand jury isn’t entitled to the records because there has been no finding that the documents contain evidence of a crime.

The records contain detailed medical information, including physical and mental health histories, of women who terminated their pregnancies, sometimes under tragic circumstances, attorneys representing the patients argued.

In some instances, the patient had an abortion after learning of a severe fetal anomaly, and the medical records often include photographs of the fetus taken after the abortion, they said.

“These photographs … may also include pictures of the fetus with baby clothes, stuffed animals or blankets that the parents had hoped to give their child.

“To have these personal histories paraded out before the members of the grand jury for their scrutiny and judgment is not only a gross intrusion on the patients’ privacy, it is cruel,” stated attorney Jim Lawing.

Of course, the anti-choicers who are responsible for this legal circus (they used an obscure Kansas law that allows citizen to petition for a grand jury investigation with little or no evidence), argue that all identifying information will be removed from the records. Unsurprisingly, this argument is rather disingenuous. While the possibility of abortion patients being “outed” is of grave concern, removing identifying information doesn’t solve the full problem. The fact that the patient’s identifying information will be removed doesn’t answer the question of privacy violation. Imagine a total stranger breaking into your house and going through your personal things — photo albums, prescriptions, bedside drawers, dirty laundry, your email, etc. — but somehow turns out to be the worst robber ever, and doesn’t manage to find any bills, letters, etc. that would provide identifying information. The fact that you don’t have to worry too much about identity theft will be some relief — but you’re still going to feel hugely violated.

All medical information should be confidential, but because of the public stigma against women who have abortions, there has always been a particularly special interest in making sure that their privacy is safe. And to make matters worse, the women who go to see Dr. Tiller aren’t your ordinary abortion patients. The fact is that 89% of abortions are done within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with another 6.5% before 15 weeks. But Dr. Tiller specializes in second and third trimester abortions, and he is one of the few doctors in the nation who will perform them. And (with only exceedingly rare exceptions) there are two reasons that women have abortions this late: the women have gotten horrible news about her health condition or that of her fetus, or because “pro-life” laws driving up cost and access have forced the woman to put off the procedure.

Since this bullshit investigation is supposed to be about post-viability fetuses, we can assume that most of the records requested are going to be . . . you guessed it, for women who had abortions post-viability. These women who seek Dr. Tiller’s help aren’t women who got pregnant on accident and don’t want to give birth; they’re women who have decided to carry their pregnancies to term, likely want a child desperately, but cannot continue the pregnancy due to serious maternal health concerns or severe fetal deformities that will result in stillbirth or death very quickly after a live birth. While most women feel relief after an abortion, these women are much more likely to have a traumatic experience simply because of the nature of the procedures they need performed, why the need to be performed, and the lengths it took to obtain care. For these women, the fact that their names and social security numbers won’t be in the records is little comfort when total strangers will still be thumbing through some of the most intimate and painful experiences of their lives.

We are talking about 2,000 women here. Women whose experiences are being exploited and who are having wounds reopened, up to five years later.

It’s easy to frame this issue in symbolic terms. It represents a great threat to abortion providers across the nation. Anti-choicers are watching from other states to see if they might be able to pull of something similar. There is the fact that this kind of thing puts all Kansas women in danger. And there’s also simply that Dr. Tiller is a crusader for women’s health and a good man — despite receiving countless threats, having his clinic vandalized, being charged with bogus crimes again, and again, and again by those who simply want to give him a hard time and cost him a lot of money, and despite being fucking shot, he still provides a vital service safely and with compassion. None of us like thinking about late-term abortions. Doctors hate performing them — and yet Dr. Tiller does.

But then there’s this: information has recently been released showing that in 2007 48% of abortions done in Kansas were on out-of-state women. Anti-choicers try to blame this entire trend in Dr. Tiller, which is insane, because the raw data (pdf) tells us that only a whopping 566 women out of 5,162 non-Kansas residents came from any state other than Missouri. This is because of Missouri anti-choice policies that have caused abortion clinics to close and because of anti-choice laws that severely restrict abortions — going to Kansas is either closer or easier.

But that doesn’t mean the forced-birth proponents are entirely wrong, either. Out of the 293 abortions performed after 22 weeks, 268 were on out of state residents. It’s probably safe to assume that all of those were performed by Dr. Tiller. Who those other 288 out-of-state women were, the data doesn’t say, but it’s not a leap at all to assume that a least a good chunk of them came to Kansas for Dr. Tiller’s late term abortion services before 22 weeks.

All of this shit is risking more than dangerous precedent and more than just the life and career of one good man who doesn’t deserve it. If Dr. Tiller is thrown in jail or forced to close his clinic, it will have a real effect immediately on women from all over this country. Women who, though I hope like hell that it’s not, could be any of us.

And why, exactly, are we putting women’s lives, health, mental well-being and privacy at risk? Politics. The only “evidence” that those who petitioned for 2,000 medical records have is a single woman who claims the clinic staff lied about the gestational age of her fetus. And an anti-choice spokesperson gives us a clear view of what her ilk think of this woman and all others who need late-term abortions.

“She is the poster child for why the records have to be reviewed,” said Kathy Ostrowski, who lobbies for Kansans for Life.

If you think that Ostrowski simply misspoke when she called the woman in question a “poster child,” I’m rather certain that you’re wrong. Take a look at how often anti-choicers misspeak and use the word “fetus” instead of “baby,” or the word “woman” instead of “mother.” They’re actually extremely talented at saying what they mean. Whether or not it was a slip of the tongue is up for debate. But whether or not forced-birth proponents see women who have abortions as helpless, manipulated and naive children who need Daddy to make all of their decisions is not.

If you would like to send letters of support or donations to Dr. Tiller, his mailing information is on his website. He has also founded a PAC, ProKanDo, which works to elect pro-choice leaders at all levels of state office.

Tagged as: abortion, courts, dr. tiller, kansas, legal, reproductive justice, reproductive rights, women’s health