Kansas Supreme Court Blocks Forced Pregnancy Outfit's Witch Hunt Attempt




Good news from Kansas, for a change. First, [o]n Feb. 5, the Supreme Court granted a...request by Tiller's lawyers to delay the enforcement of a subpoena for five years' worth of records of 2,000 women who sought abortions 22 weeks or later into their pregnancies. Those would be the patient records requested by a grand jury empaneled after the forced pregnancy outfit Kansans for Life got seven thousand people to sign a petition. [You know, how you do when you just absolutely, positively must rummage through a stranger's medical chart for a bit of titillation.]

Not deterred by the failure of their initial scheme, [t]he grand jury then subpoenaed Six's [Kansas' Attorney General] office for records from 2003, obtained during an investigation when Phill Kline held the office. This prompted Attorney General Six to appeal the subpoena to the Supreme Court, resulting in a second bit of good news from Kansas:

Citing "significant issues" regarding patient privacy and a grand jury's authority to issue subpoenas, the chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked enforcement of a grand jury subpoena from Sedgwick County, Kan., of medical records of women who obtained abortions after their 21st week of pregnancy at physician George Tiller's Wichita clinic, Women's Health Care Services.... The subpoena from the grand jury had ordered state Attorney General Stephen Six (D) to turn over the records of 60 women who obtained abortions at the clinic by Wednesday.


So many patient charts, so little time to 1) lie about the real reason you want to get your hands on those charts, 2) go to extraordinary lengths to expose the patients' identities, and 3) generally abuse and demean Kansas women who dare think their medical charts are not public information.

Belief-Based Pharmacology

Kevin Stormans
Photo by sonofgroucho



"The Constitution tells me that I should have the ability to practice what I believe is right."

Had I known that the Constitution and personal belief guide the practice of pharmacology I wouldn't have bothered with reading all those pharmacology books.

Maybe I'll move to Washington state and, in cooperation with Stormans pharmacy, start a belief-based medical practice.

Where's Phill Kline When You Need Him?

Phill Kline's objective
Photo by bistrosavage



When it comes to violating patient privacy, New York City detectives and district attorneys are amateurs when compared to their Kansas counterparts.

Investigators looking into the recent killing of Kathryn Faughey, a city psychologist, would like to gain access to her patient records to determine whether the killer was one of her patients. But because of state and federal privacy laws they haven't yet been unable to access the medical records.

The problem, according to David Truemen, a psychologist and professor of health law at Columbia University, is that:

"[The police] can't do a fishing expedition," he said. "If they show probable cause, they can get records of individuals, but they can't just go get a list of patients and all their information."


Bwahahahaha, what utter, effete, coastal, liberal nonsense! Not only would Kansas authorities be able to go on a fishing expedition and come up with access to 2,090 patient records, but Kansas' very own Phill "Patient Chart Thief" Kline would be able to rout patient identities even if all personally identifying information were ordered removed from the charts.

Of course, the stumbling block in the New York investigation is that the suspect is a male patient, so authorities can't just go around trampling on his rights, despite him having actually committed a crime (actually he killed one person, the psychologist, and seriously injured another one, a colleague who came to her defense).

Still, my point stands: Where's a Kansas prosecutor when you really need to breach patient confidentiality?

Sen. Obama's Reason For Banning Abortion


Photo by annia316.


Just found out that Sen. Obama would seek to ban abortion because abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all…

Inspired by Sen. Obama's inclusiveness, star quality, progressiveness, emanation of hope and change, not to mention his impeccable grasp of the reality that banning a perfectly safe and effective medical procedure is justified because it violates some nebulous universal principle, I think I might just sit out the upcoming presidential election.

ETA:

Heh, I should've known. From the Obama site (via; emphasis in the original comment):

So let's rededicate ourselves to a new kind of politics - a politics of conscience. Let's come together - Protestant and Catholic, Muslim and Hindu and Jew, believer and non-believer alike. We're not going to agree on everything, but we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can affirm our faith without endangering the separation of church and state, as long as we understand that when we're in the public square, we have to speak in universal terms that everyone can understand. And if we can do that - if we can embrace a common destiny - then I believe we'll not just help bring about a more hopeful day in America, we'll not just be caring for our own souls, we'll be doing God's work here on Earth.



(via)

Cheap Birth Control Pills and Federally Mandated Misuse of Emergency Contraception

Kroger Helps


Photo by hamed.


[T]he Cincinnati-based Kroger announced that it will begin selling 30-day supplies of more than 300 generic prescription drugs, including birth control pills, at significant discounts at participating pharmacies nationwide....

The program offers a 28-day supply of birth control for $9...compared with the national average price of $24 to $30 for a monthly supply. Generic versions of Ortho Cyclen and Ortho Tri-Cyclen are also covered.

Politicians Hurt


Photo by junku-newcleus.


The cost of prescription contraceptives at college health clinics in Minnesota has increased up to fivefold since last year....

The reason for the price increase is the incompetence of our politicians an inadvertent change to the federal law that created a financial disincentive for pharmaceutical companies to sell deeply discounted birth control to college clinics. As a result [s]ome college clinics have reported decreases in the number of contraceptives sold, and some students have said they have switched to less expensive methods of contraception or are relying on emergency contraception...

And just in case you missed the significance of the comment about the emergency contraception (EC) use, here it is.

Almost half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended. Of these, almost half (48% in 2001) occur during a month when birth control was used. Those who don't regard female patients of reproductive age as garbage offer one solution to this problem: make EC available OTC. Those whose calling is to hurt and degrade female patients (politicians, religionists and their lackeys at the FDA) do everything in their power to deny patients access to this safe and effective drug.

Once the utter morons we allow to have a say in these matters acquiesce and allow EC to be sold OTC, they turn right around and pass a law that practically forces patients to use EC incorrectly, thus totally undermining any potential positive impact EC use might have on reducing the rate of unintended pregnancies.

Brilliant, no?

Gimme That Ol' Time Rape


Photo by mayr.


If you're a female of reproductive age, it is a given in this country that you are not competent to make your own medical decisions when it comes to terminating a pregnancy. Politicians, like for example Sen. Doug Henry from TN, are the ones who get to decide what's best for you, as well they should:

Sen. Doug Henry, an 81-year-old Nashville Democrat, explaining to the state Senate his votes surrounding amendments to the abortion resolution: "Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse. Today it’s simply, ‘Let’s don’t go forward with this act.’"


For you see ladies, you might think you know your medical history best. And you might think you should be the ones making medical decisions for yourselves. But until, and unless, you require that, in order for a physical assault to count, a victim's hymenal tissue must meet certain specifications, you have no business making your own abortion decisions.










(via)

Patient Identity: What Phill Kline Wants, Phill Kline Gets

Disturbing new information about Kansas' former Attorney General, deranged pustule Phill "Patient Chart Thief" Kline (emphasis mine):

Laura Shaneyfelt, one of Tiller's lawyers, told Buchanan that Kline had been able to identify patients, even after the state Supreme Court ordered that the names be removed.

Shaneyfelt showed a document from the attorney general's office, compiled when Kline held the post, that matched guest registration records at a hotel near Women's Health Care Services with dates and details of abortion records. According to a February 2005 subpoena, Kline's office asked for information and telephone records of guests at the La Quinta Inn who stayed in rooms reserved by Tiller and his employees, as well as addresses and telephone numbers of guests at the hotel who "received a medical discount." Kline spokesperson Brian Burgess said that the patients were not identified but did not elaborate, saying that the details of the investigation are still under seal....


The good news is that there's a new group of 2,000 Kansas patients whose private medical information will soon be available for public consumption. Oh, the endless fun and giggles one can have when perusing a perfect stranger's medical record!

Sky Fairy Medicine


Photo by ElFrenetico.


In Indiana and Pennsylvania pharmacists and health care professionals might soon be able to refuse to fill prescriptions for/dispense contraceptives for Sky Fairy reasons.

In the UK Muslim female medical students object to exposing their forearms while washing their hands because their Sky Fairy requires covering all the body in public, except the face and hands.

In Virginia the particular Sky Fairy worshiped by some of that State's legislators has decided that women who miscarry or who elect to terminate a pregnancy are to be offered fetal anesthesia in a manner consistent with that commonly used with a human undergoing an amputation.

And somewhere deep in a forest the last caveman on earth is laughing his derrière off.

RI Gov. Carcieri Supports Antiabortion Advocates




Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri and first lady Sue Carcieri, in the State House rotunda in Providence, R.I., protest womens' right to proper medical care.

Medical Records of 2,000 Kansas Women to Be Surrendered to Grand Jury


Photo by catnapping.


Seven thousand strangers in your area sign a petition because they want to know whether an area doctor obeyed state laws governing normal vaginal deliveries. Based on their petition a grand jury is empaneled and a judge orders the doctor to immediately surrender the medical records of 2,000 patients.

The debasing of female patients, Kansas ones in particular, continues unabated.

HPV Vaccine For Boys

Coming [more or less] soon to a doctor near you.

Gardasil HPV vaccine for men
Photo by Ben Scicluna.


Merck plans to seek FDA approval for its quadrivalent Gardasil HPV vaccine in men later this year:

Merck has been testing the vaccine in an international study...focused on anal and penile cancer and genital warts...said Kelley Dougherty, a Merck spokeswoman....No data from Merck's study are available yet.