Double Dose, Part I: Phill Kline Update; SCHIP and Abstinence Funding; Student Sues Over Rape Kit Refusal

What’s Phill Kline Doing These Days?: The latest, via The New York Times — “A county prosecutor in Kansas who waged a vociferous battle against abortion in his former role as the state’s attorney general filed dozens of felony and misdemeanor charges yesterday against a Planned Parenthood clinic, saying the facility provided illegal late-term abortions, among other crimes.”

Planned Parenthood says the charges are a political attack. “We can’t allow anti-choice politicians to harass and intimidate women or doctors in Kansas,” Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said during a news conference. “… No health care provider should be threatened with felony convictions simply because elected officials oppose legal abortion.”

All of which makes Echidne ponder: “Do you think Phill Kline might suffer from an unusual kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder? That would be a gentle explanation for his single-minded stalking of all abortion providers in Kansas.”

Thanks, Democrats!: Amanda Robb, who is writing a book about the abstinence movement, criticizes the “bipartisan compromise” designed to garner support of a bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance program.

“To entice Republicans to support the bill, the House of Representatives agreed to increase money for abstinence-only sex education by $28 million, to a total of about $200 million a year,” writes Robb in an op-ed. “By dropping the financing for abstinence-only sex ed, Congress could save enough money to insure 150,000 children a year. And it would also demonstrate much needed resolve to protect all aspects of children’s health.”

Student Sues Over Rape Kit Refusal: “A Howard student is suing the University for negligence and medical malpractice because she said she was raped and denied proper care at GW Hospital because she allegedly appeared intoxicated, according to documents filed in D.C. Superior Court,” reports the GW Hatchett, George Washington University’s student newspaper.

“The plaintiff, a 19-year-old sophomore, also filed suit against the District, Howard University Hospital and several local doctors. The complaint states she was given a date-rape drug at an off-campus party near Howard and was then denied a rape kit at several hospitals – including GW.” Unbelievable story.