Judge drops charges against abortion doc

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 16 minutes ago

WICHITA, Kan. - Kansas' attorney general, a vocal abortion opponent, charged a well-known abortion provider with illegally performing late-term abortions, but a Sedgwick County judge on Friday threw out the charges after less than a day.

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The 30 misdemeanor counts Kline filed against Tiller involve 15 abortions from July through November 2003. They were performed on patients 22 years old or younger, including a 10-year-old, according to the criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Sedgwick County District Court.

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Under Kansas law, if a woman wants to obtain an abortion after the 22nd week of her pregnancy, a doctor must first determine whether the fetus can survive outside the womb. If the fetus is viable, the procedure can be used only to preserve her physical or mental health.

None of the abortions involved a late-term procedure opponents call "partial birth" abortion, Kline said. The charges involve situations in which Tiller cannot demonstrate that a woman faced permanent damage to a major bodily function, or Tiller's conclusion that some patients' mental health would be harmed if they did not have abortions, Kline said.