A potential political scandal in Kansas grew wider Wednesday as Johnson Country District Attorney Stephen Howe revealed that a former state attorney general in 2009 destroyed copies of records important to the prosecution of abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The documents were copies of records that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) had destroyed in 2005 in what it called a “routine” shredding.
Howe told Johnson County District Court Judge Stephen Tatum that the “legal hurdles are insurmountable” to prosecute Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri on 23 felony counts of false writing (or forging client records) and 26 misdemeanor counts and asked the judge to dismiss those charges, a request granted by Tatum. A Feb. 22, 2012, hearing will involve 58 additional misdemeanor counts of failure to determine the viability of unborn children and unlawful late-term abortions....