Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline might have some legal basis to argue that, under Kansas law, any evidence of underage sexual activity is evidence of a crime and therefore should be reported by doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.
But as we argue in an editorial on today’s Opinion page, there’s good reason to worry that such a broad-brush approach could violate physician-patient privacy and discourage teens from seeking medical advice and treatment. Moreover, Kline’s motivations don’t inspire confidence: Where does his zeal in cracking down on sex offenders end and his zeal in pushing an anti-abortion agenda begin? It’s not always clear.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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15 Comments
It is a valid argument that to require every incident of know sexual activity by a person under 16 to be report. Would cause more problems then it would solve, for the most part it would gain nothing.It is had enough for parents to talk to their children about sex, it even take a true parent that would be willing to arrange for a child to get contraceptives. If enacted it would mean not only would the parents of the child have a light shined on them. But the child would also be outed for being sexually active.This by no means would stop the sexual activity, but would farther encourage it be kept in ignorance.
Phil Kline’s moralistic police state is coming to a pelvis near you.
It seems hard to believe that Phil Kline really has the best interest of girls at heart and not winning points with the RR. Doctors can and should differentiate between sexual abuse and consentual sex (even if girls under 18 cannot legally consent). But, it seems pretty undeniable that girls will not talk to a doctor if they are afraid that the 16 or worse 18 yr old they love and think will be their one and only true love will get in trouble. Doctor-patient confidentiality is not a law, but it is highly respected. Like wire-tapping, people that are in favor of this would probably rapidly change their tune if their doctor was going to report their own peccadilloes. Some times you have to care more about people than principles.
People over principles? Phil Kline? You wrote that as a joke, right?
Hey kids,If you are sexually active, never, never tell your Doctor, school nurse, counsellor, teacher, minister or for that matter, any adult! Do not request birth control. Do not buy condoms or home pregnancy tests. If you think you might be pregnant, ask a trusted girlfriend to hold the other end of the coathanger. That is your only option! If you think you might have caught a sexually transmitted disease, under no circumstances tell anyone, or seek treatment. If your heart gets broken, keep it to yourself. As far as anyone knows, you are all perfect little virgins. Phill Kline has spoken!
Allie, as a matter of fact, the age of consent in Kansas is 16. Surprised me, too.
Hey Kline go join Phelps you to nuts deserve each other.
With this logic, why dont’ we just make birth control methods controlled substances and no one can get a prescription unless they are over 18?
Bush is guilty of child porn in the worst way: He last week screwed our kids out of 12.7 BILLION dollard of student aid to get college educations! That is legal though! Ask these kids who stole their healt care! It’s ok, most American jobs are sent to India, China, or Russia anyway. Why waste time and money on education? There is a class war going on …. have you noticed?
Phil Kline is one scary guy. So a doctor finds out that his 15 year old patient is sexually active (the average age that kids become sexually active is 14) and he reports it, then what? Do the sex police come and arrest the kid? Put him in state’s custody? Court order him into sex education classes? Test him for HIV? Fine his parents?What’s supposed to happen once the report is made?Gee, I’m glad I was an adolescent in the 60’s. Being a teenager was a lot more fun back then.
Here it is. The real reason Phil Kline wants to make it difficult for teenagers to get birth control.
This is a line out of the wichita eagles story today.
“A pregnant girl under 16, by her very condition, provides evidence of a sex crime under Kansas law, the opinion reasoned, and should be reported to SRS as abuse”
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/13761590.htm
Is Phill Kline a pervert? He seems awfully interested in women’s sex lives, especially those of young teens. He could be doing a lot of other law enforcement type activities, but this is the one he obsesses on.
The idea that lawyers can identify sexaul abuse more accurately than a doctor is laughable. To say that it’s criminal for two 15 yr olds to explore sex with each other is ridiculous. What is his real agenda? I hate it when politicians are so disingenuous about what they’re really after.
Damoon,He wants to be an ayatolla so he and the rest of his ilk – Fox, Wright, Abrams, Morris, et. al, can impose their rigid views of everybody. Just like in the Middle East.
I would really like to know what he hopes to accomplish with this craziness, he can’t be serious about the underage sex thing. He obviously doesn’t live in the real world if he thinks SRS is going to welcome reports of young teenagers having sex. They have more than they can handle with valid abuse reports. What does he expect? That social workers will go into people’s homes and investigate a teen’s sex life? SRS workers must be having a good laugh over this one. Have our elected officals lost their minds? It’s getting scary.