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Roundabout via Sad Hill News
The country’s first criminal prosecution of Planned Parenthood was left teetering Friday when it was revealed the state of Kansas destroyed abortion records that prosecutors planned to use as evidence.
Johnson County prosecutors asked a judge to delay a Monday hearing to decide if there’s enough evidence to try Planned Parenthood on 23 felony counts of falsifying termination of pregnancy reports.
Prosecutors say the records, which are central to making their case, were shredded sometime in 2005, roughly two years before charges were brought against Planned Parenthood by former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment shredded the records as a “routine” destruction of state documents, court files said.
The prosecution’s request for a continuance drew a swift response from Planned Parenthood, which said any further delay is inexcusable.
A judge will take up the continuance request Monday morning.
Filed in October 2007, the case has been mired in a four-year legal trench fight over access to the very records that were destroyed, as well as other issues.
Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said the latest turn was another instance of the state bungling a case initiated by Kline when he was Kansas attorney general from 2003 to 2007.
“Our contention all along has been there is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,” Brownlie said. “I believe this leaves the district attorney in a position where he has no evidence, period.”
Abortion opponents were so stunned by the latest revelation that they hard to time articulating their reaction.
“Unbelievable,” said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life.
“We don’t believe for one second this was anything but purposefully done to protect the abortion industry.”
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