TOPEKA, Kan. — Two abortion clinics asked the state's highest court yesterday to investigate Attorney General Phill Kline and Fox television's Bill O'Reilly over O'Reilly's statements that he had information from Kansas abortion records.
A Kline spokeswoman called the clinics' move "a political ploy."
The clinics' attorneys want the Kansas Supreme Court to seize records that Kline, an outspoken abortion opponent, obtained on 90 of the clinics' patients. Kline received edited versions of the records from a district judge on Oct. 24 after arguing he wanted to review the records for evidence of possible crimes, including rape and illegal abortions.
The attorneys asked the court to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether O'Reilly's information came from the records turned over to Kline.
There is no record of the Kansas Supreme Court's ever appointing a special prosecutor, court spokesman Ron Keefover said.
O'Reilly said on his Nov. 3 show, "The O'Reilly Factor," that an inside source gave him information that a doctor at one of the clinics, George Tiller, had performed late-term abortions because patients were depressed. O'Reilly deemed it "executing babies."
He said on his radio show yesterday that he "got information" about Tiller's activities "somewhere along the line."
"I'm not going to tell you when or anything else about how we got them," O'Reilly said.
Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones has said the attorney general didn't know how O'Reilly obtained the information.
David Tabacoff, executive producer of "The O'Reilly Factor," issued a statement saying, "We stand by our story."
The two clinics requesting the investigation are Tiller's Wichita clinic and a Planned Parenthood-run clinic in Overland Park. Tiller, one of the few U.S. doctors to perform late-term abortions, has been targeted by protesters for years. His clinic was bombed in 1985 and he was shot by a protester in 1993.
The clinics' request for an investigation was the second in a week targeting the attorney general. On Nov. 1, former Attorney General Bob Stephan, a Republican like Kline, asked the state Governmental Ethics Commission to examine Kline's fundraising and activities involving churches. Kline is running for a second term.