CHICAGO — The Kansas attorney general, as part of a criminal investigation into child rape and late-term abortions, is demanding that two health centers hand over the medical records of about 90 female patients, including minors.
The investigation was disclosed in a filing to the Kansas Supreme Court by two unidentified clinics, which had been ordered by a district court judge to disclose the patients' names, as well as their medical histories, birth control, sexual practices and other personal details.
Advocates on each side of the abortion debate said they were surprised by the move, and said it was rare for medical facilities to be ordered by a court to give such broad access to records as part of a criminal inquiry.
On Thursday, Atty. Gen. Phill Kline -- a foe of abortion -- said at a news conference in Topeka, Kan., that he needed access to the files and the entirety of the patients' personal information to do his job.
"I have the duty to investigate and prosecute child rape and other crimes in order to protect Kansas children," Kline said.
The two Kansas clinics have not been identified by name or location.
Debates about abortion rage in Kansas, in part because Wichita is the home of Women's Health Care Services, one of the country's few clinics that provide abortions to women in the later stages of pregnancy.
Women from all over the country travel to see Dr. George R. Tiller, who runs the clinic. Antiabortion activists routinely picket Tiller and the clinic, and follow its employees home and around town.
Tiller and the Women's Health Care Services clinic declined to comment on the investigation Thursday, or to say whether they were involved.
In October, District Judge Richard Anderson in Shawnee County, Kan., ruled that the attorney general's office could get the files and information after investigators said they suspected the records included cases in which adult women had undergone late-term abortions and girls age 15 and younger had had abortions.
In Kansas, the age of sexual consent is 16. State law prevents abortions from being performed at or after 22 weeks of gestation, unless done to protect the health of the mother.
"Rape is a serious crime, and when a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old is pregnant -- they have been raped under Kansas law," Kline said at the news conference.
Lawyers for the clinics, who filed the 40-page legal brief Tuesday, are asking the state Supreme Court to quash the subpoena.
