Thousands of Kansans opened their mailboxes Thursday to find a solicitation letter from former Attorney General Phill Kline that invokes physician George Tiller and Planned Parenthood while seeking contributions for a campaign against abortion rights.
The five-page mailing from Kline was placed into circulation by an Ohio company May 27, a spokesman for Kline said, which would have been four days before Tiller was shot and killed at a church in Wichita.
“There was no way to foresee what was going to happen,” said spokesman Brian Burgess. “I think it’s fair to say the timing is unfortunate.”
Kline, who filed criminal charges against Tiller while serving as attorney general, targeted the solicitation at former political supporters. He is trying to eliminate $200,000 in personal legal debt that piled up during the past six years. The letter also says cash was needed by Life Issues Institute, an anti-abortion organization in Cincinnati affiliated with Kline, to “launch more aggressive battles on the national front.”
“I need your support,” Kline says in the piece. “Your contributions will help us continue this fight and defray our legal expenses.”
“I have acted in faith consistent with my duty and oath of office. When you think about it, the battle is understandable. They must silence the truth by silencing the messenger; and to date, I am the only one who has been willing to speak the truth,” the letter concludes.
How exactly is the courageous, ethical, professional, yet woefully persecuted, Phill Kline supposed to continue to fight the good fight and pay his legal expenses if [t]hey [who] must silence the truth by silencing the messenger keep on getting shot in the head while attending church, hmm, I ask you?
Least you forget, when it comes to Phill Kline, we are in the presence of exceptional greatness. After all, he was the only one willing to:
2005 - Cross-reference patient file numbers with abortion records, then subpoena records from Wichita’s La Quinta Inn, where patients were staying, to match dates with names.
2007 - Steal patients' medical records.
2008 - Store the stolen medical records in his garage, have an employee store them in a Rubbermaid container in his dining room, and have his staff copy confidential medical records at a retail store.
2009 - Have his staff mail patients' medical records to the new state he was moving to after losing his Kansas job.