Upholding Privacy

Some good news–and it’s particularly welcome this week–from Kansas. I wrote last year about an attempt by the Kansas attorney general to obtain the unedited medical records of patients who obtained abortions, an excellent case study in the Trojan Horse application of purportedly “reasonable” abortion regulations that are irrational on their face. Fortunately, some courts are still willing to protect the privacy rights of women (while also making the importance of health exemptions clear):

The Kansas Supreme Court today ordered a district judge to reconsider subpoenas issued at Attorney General Phill Kline’s request for abortion clinic medical records.

The unanimous ruling orders Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson to use tightly drawn restrictions on any requests for medical records.

[…]

Kline has also said he’s investigating cases of illegal late-term abortion. Kansas law prohibits abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy unless the continuation of pregnancy could severely injure the woman. Kline has gone on record opposing an earlier court decision that injury to a woman’s mental health was sufficient reason to allow a late-term abortion. In the court records, the judge discussed the issue of “interpretation of whether a mental health exception is reasonable basis for protecting a woman’s health.”

Kudos to the Kansas Supremes for not allowing this particular attempt to shred privacy and reproductive rights. Which is a good reminder: choice needs to be fought at the level of state as well as federal institutions. State courts will be critical actors in fights to insure that abortion regulations do not become licenses for government officials to abirtrarily harass abortion clinics.

…although, since Planned Parenthood believed that the records should not be produced at all, it’s not an unequivocal victory; the AG using records for a legitimate, narrowly drawn purpose is far less troubling. Still, I’m inclined to believe is clearly a strong net positive (and PP themselves, at least, are portraying it as a victory.) Much more, including details about the arguments, from Josh Roseneau.