Kan. Drops Several Charges in Planned Parenthood Case

November 10, 2011 — Kansas District Court Judge Stephen Tatum on Wednesday dismissed 49 of 107 charges against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri for allegedly falsifying documents and performing illegal abortions, the AP/Washington Post reports. The case was filed in 2007 by former state Attorney General Phill Kline (R).

On Wednesday, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said he had no choice but to request dismissal of the charges related to falsifying documents because the state health department shredded documents pertaining to the case in 2005. The documents were filed with the state health department by PPKM's clinic in Overland Park in 2003. Copies of the documents -- which contained reports on individual abortions performed at the clinic -- also were kept by the attorney general's office, but those copies were destroyed in 2009. To prove the allegations that the documents were falsified, prosecutors intended to compare those copies with records later produced by PPKM when it was being investigated.

Tatum threw out 23 felony counts of falsifying reports and 26 misdemeanor charges that the clinic did not maintain its own copies, as required under state law. PPKM is still charged with 58 misdemeanor counts of violating a Kansas law governing abortion services late in pregnancy. A hearing on the remaining charges is scheduled for February.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R) requested that state authorities investigate the records shredding to see if any laws were broken (AP/Washington Post, 11/9).