Right to Life Agenda

Kline got his impetus from State Senator Mark Gilstrap, an anti- abortion Kansas City Democrat. In the spring of 2003, Gilstrap contacted Kline and urged him to review the disclosure requirements regarding minor’s access to reproductive health care—especially abortion. Kline told the Capital - Journal newspaper that his perusal of Child Abuse statutes led him to strengthen the reporting mandates. “It is illegal for girls under 16 to have sexual relations,” he says. Since sex for females under 16 is, by definition, “rape, [taking] indecent liberties with a child, or unlawful voluntary sexual relations,” all libidinous activities on the part of these teens has to be revealed. 

In practical terms, if the courts uphold Kline’s directive, mandatory reporters will have to notify the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services “if they come into contact with a boy or girl younger than 16 who seeks medical attention for a sexually transmitted disease, a girl who seeks medical attention for a pregnancy, or children younger than 16 who seek birth control or who disclose that they already have been sexually active,” since this is “evidence” that a felony has been committed. 

Doctors who fail to report “suspected abuse” face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. They can also be disciplined by the State Board of the Healing Arts. 

Not surprisingly, the shift is polarizing those who work with young people. Kline says the change protects children from sexual exploitation. In his corner are Kansans for Life, a NRTLC affiliate and the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, and Concerned Women for America. On the opposite pole are reproductive rights activists and care providers, advocates for youth, the Medical Society of Kansas, the Kansas Association of Social Workers, and several nursing groups. 

“Providers of care have been required to report all suspected injuries from abusive relationships for decades,” says Bonnie Scott Jones, a staff attorney at the New York City-based Center for Reproductive Rights and the lawyer who argued for an injunction to stop Kline from imposing the new strictures. “Kline interprets the law regarding illegal sexual activity to say that all sexual activity is sexual abuse and is injurious so it has to be reported,” Jones says. “It does not matter if the sex is consensual or between similar-aged parties.” 

According to the complaint Jones filed, “Plaintiffs fear that reporting all consensual sexual activity between age-mates will not protect adolescents from sexual abuse, but will instead threaten plaintiff’s professional relationships with their patients and clients and deter adolescents from obtaining needed care, at the expense of their health.” 

“Kline was very clever to focus many of his statements on doctors who perform abortions even though he knew that the reporting requirement had broad implications for public health and applies to all providers of care to minors,” Bonnie Scott Jones says. “People, including liberals, have not confronted the issue of what decisions young people should be able to make outside the bosom of their families. We know the stark realities about what adolescents do and what adults wish they did. This case is the most extreme example of people who are uncomfortable with adolescent sexuality. It goes beyond abortion. Where the line gets drawn in terms of teen access to reproductive healthcare services will be litigated and fought in professional associations and communities over the next many years.” 

Until it is resolved, and until abortion and birth control are recognized for the social good they provide, the situation will likely deteriorate further. According to the World Health Organization, 20 million of the 50 million abortions performed worldwide each year are performed in unsafe, unsanitary, and illegal conditions. On the day that you read this, 200 women will have died from illicit procedures.

Eleanor J. Bader is co-author of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism.