Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline filed notice today that he’s appealing U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten’s ruling on the underage sex case to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver, to press his discredited point that authorities should be informed of pretty much all sexual contact involving teenagers. That’s a bad move, one that will cost taxpayers more to cover Kline’s defense against the lawsuit and also could lead to an order that the state cover the plaintiffs’ costs. The time and tax dollars this case is taking are maddening, kind of like Kline’s assertion that health professionals and others can’t be trusted to recognize and report child sexual abuse to authorities.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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18 Comments
If Phill gets his way, will they call this the stinky-finger law?
I hope the Eagle publishes a detailed cost analysis and sends a copy to the Flint Hills bunch who hate taxes so much.
How soon can we vote this clown out of office?? He seems to be taking his job waaaaay beyond the constitutional descriptions.
When I moved here, I had heard that Kansas could be a bit conservative in a lot of ways. I didn’t imagine it to mean Puritan.
Someone please inform Holman that it costs no more money to the state to appeal things like this.
So…I should assume she is against the $1.3 million kansas taxpayers spent sending illegal aliens to school this year.
is that okay?
capt – how to you figure it doesn’t cost anything?
You would think that the health professionals would report abuse but not all of them do. If you go back several years when Peggy Jarman was lobbying for Dr. Tiller she appeared before the House Judiciary committee and during her testimony she talked about what a shame it would be if the father from out of state who had brought his (I think she was 9 or 10) young daughter to Kansas to get an abortion had not been able to do so. When the chairman of the committee asked her if she or the doctor reported this to law enforcement she first said no. Then it dawned on her what she had just said and started back tracking.
The chairman pointed out to Peggy that the first thing that should have come to mind was that incest had occurred and it should have been reported. But Peggy just did not seem to think so. The board of healing arts (who recently got a failing grade) did not want to look into it.
I am not sure that Kline has gone about all of this in the right way but we should stop and think for just a moment was is being considered here. Do we want to allow incest to go on so that the young girl has not out? Do we want to see rape occur to a young girl and it not be reported? This is really the heart of the matter. If you have to young people who truly had consensual sex then so be it (not condoning) but we must also be willing to be there for those that need help.
The idiot. I wrote a paper on this because it was just so incredible. Got me an A+ too, yay!
“Do we want to allow incest to go on so that the young girl has not out? Do we want to see rape occur to a young girl and it not be reported?”
A cut and paste from an early draft of it:
In order to explore whether complete and unbridled confidentiality is the best route, let us look at a less clear-cut situation. In my next case, a 13 year old girl is having intercourse with a 19 year old adult male. After being assured of complete confidentiality, the 13 year old confides that she doesn’t want to do it, but the 19 year old is forcing her. Whenever she tries to say no, he brutally hits her: not hard enough to suffer internal damage or permanent injury, but hard enough to leave visible bruises. She tells the doctor that she’s scared of getting pregnant, and wants to get on the birth control pill, as well as undergo STD testing. Of course, under the law, such activity is illegal. But does the doctor have an ethical obligation to report this? I would say no, *especially since she already informed the patient of complete confidentiality.* Of course, there is obvious harm to the patient, so it can be argued that the doctor has an obligation to intercede. She can do so by strongly encouraging the patient to report the crime herself or to tell her parents. She can convince the patient that this man is harming her and that she should do everything to stay away from him. Finally, she can provide the patient with birth control to prevent pregnancy and antibiotics to treat her STD. It is likely that were the patient not given a complete assurance of confidentiality, she would have declined to reveal her situation to the physician. Let us compare the two scenarios of confidentiality and threat of breaching confidentiality. In the former, if the doctor convinces the patient to report the crime, the rapist is much more likely to be prosecuted and put away (since the patient is willing to cooperate). Even if the doctor can’t convince the patient to tell anyone about the abuse, the patient is given encouragement and resources to help her cope emotionally as well as medication to prevent pregnancy and STD damage. Without the promise of confidentiality, the patient does not confide in the doctor and received nothing. She may possibly end up pregnant or permanently damaged by an untreated STD. This case supports complete confidentiality in order to provide the greatest benefit to the patient.
Did Kline go after records from other pregnancy-related providers, i.e. birthing centers and maternity homes? If his concern is possible child abuse then he has to treat all options equally.
Ben,It’s fairly obvious by now that Kline isn’t concerned about sex abuse, he’s on a crusade against abortion, and he doesn’t care how much it costs taxpayers, he’s going to have his little war!
As I have said before, we knew Kline was going to fight abortion when he was elected. I don’t know why anybody is surprised at what he’s doing. The wingnuts who voted for him knew exactly what they were doing and what they expected him to do.I also think it is good whacking material for him. Behind closed doors. All by himself.
Kline doesn’t pay.
If phill wants to end abuse and incest, he should be investigating live births with the same zeal. Until then? Pure taliban.
Of course he hangs on to it and wont let it go. It is ALL he has for the upcoming campaign. And the ruby/sts kookaide drinkers will be following right along.
Please, give all your money to phill for the campaign. It keeps the other talibaners out of office too when you support phill.
“I also think it is good whacking material for him. Behind closed doors. All by himself.”
Git, the new ministry of values columnist wont like that statement.
Maybe you could balance out the taliban loving editorial board?
When will the NON talibaners get their own personal columnist? When the devil ice skates?
I thought so.
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What part of “rape” or “child molestation” don’t all you wacko pro-aborts understand??
It is IMPOSSIBLE for a 12 year old child to be pregnant without a felony being committed.
I guess when you think killing the evidence of your own fornicating is paramount it matters little what happens to other peoples kids even if they are already born.
About half of the citizens in this nation are morally dysfuntional.
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i’m lost
The Wichita Eagle’s pro-democrat bias is shameful. 77% of the nation’s secular media are reported to be registered democrats. The paper’s staff certainly proves that statistic true as it beats, destroys and bashes conservative leaning people.
One day The Wichita Eagle and many of its counter parts are going to wake up without any readers… because many of those in the mainstream will say “I’ve had enough.”
If you’re going to be biased simply admit it, but don’t parade around like the an “objective mecca” pretending to be something.
In this way there is no difference between the paper’s bias and others they call hypicritic.
I just wish the paper would “come out of the closet” and stop pretending to be fair.