hanneblank (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} hanneblank) wrote,@ 2005-10-20 12:15:00 |
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Heads Up, Kansas...
Just a heads-up to any of my readers who are, or know, young Kansan women and/or their current or former sexual partners: a report in this morning's Kaiser Family Foundation newsletter states that the KS Attorney General Phill Kline (R) has been examining records of live births and subpoenaing medical records from clinics that provide abortion services and is apparently having all the records combed for any evidence of anyone under age 16 (age of consent in KS) having been impregnated by a legal adult (i.e., someone 18 years of age or older). It is being legitimized by the trotting-out of an (as yet not independently verified) statement on the part of the GA's office that approximately half of the cases the GA's office has subpoenaed involve a female between the ages of 10 and 13, which is a move to draw the public's attention to the idea that this investigation is related solely to nonconsensual, abusive sexual contact between pre-pubescent or pubescent children and adults.
Past experience in watching other stat-rape witch hunts in other states, like California's for example, tells me that this is not likely to be the case at all. Although there will probably be a small percentage of cases caught in the net that do constitute forcible rape/abuse, the bulk of cases that end up being brought as a result of these kinds of "law enforcement" efforts tend to involve people of lower socioeconomic brackets, frequently Latina/o, African-American, or poor (often rural) whites who were engaged in consensual relationships and consensual sex. One of the things you should be aware of here is that it looks like they're going after anyone who technically meets the conditions of violating the letter of the law. If a woman was under the age of 15 when she became pregnant -- even if she was over 16 at the time that she visited her gynecological provider or family planning clinic to either give birth or obtain an abortion -- and the AG's office believes that her partner was above the age of majority, there's going to be someone poking way into her business real soon now, and into the business of her partner(s) as well as soon as they can track them down, and I would not be at all surprised if the AG's office fully intends to bring statutory rape and/or child sexual abuse charges.
Please be aware that because Kansas law does not acknowledge the ability of women under age 16 to consent to sex, this means that these investigations may affect ANYONE who might fall under this category, even if their relationship and whatever sex took place inside it was fully consensual. This may include cases in which the partners are married. In some cases, statutory rape law is also applied to married couples (there are states in which a young person may legally marry with parental consent at an age younger than the state's age of consent); since minors can marry with parental consent in Kansas, this may apply to some of the Kansas cases in question.
If you are, or know someone who is, a young woman (or the current/former partner of a young woman) who might be affected by the current investigation and subpoena of records in Kansas, be advised that this is going down. You may wish to contact a lawyer if you consider yourself at high risk of being investigated, to find out what your rights and responsibilities are here according to Kansas state law.
Just a heads-up to any of my readers who are, or know, young Kansan women and/or their current or former sexual partners: a report in this morning's Kaiser Family Foundation newsletter states that the KS Attorney General Phill Kline (R) has been examining records of live births and subpoenaing medical records from clinics that provide abortion services and is apparently having all the records combed for any evidence of anyone under age 16 (age of consent in KS) having been impregnated by a legal adult (i.e., someone 18 years of age or older). It is being legitimized by the trotting-out of an (as yet not independently verified) statement on the part of the GA's office that approximately half of the cases the GA's office has subpoenaed involve a female between the ages of 10 and 13, which is a move to draw the public's attention to the idea that this investigation is related solely to nonconsensual, abusive sexual contact between pre-pubescent or pubescent children and adults.
Past experience in watching other stat-rape witch hunts in other states, like California's for example, tells me that this is not likely to be the case at all. Although there will probably be a small percentage of cases caught in the net that do constitute forcible rape/abuse, the bulk of cases that end up being brought as a result of these kinds of "law enforcement" efforts tend to involve people of lower socioeconomic brackets, frequently Latina/o, African-American, or poor (often rural) whites who were engaged in consensual relationships and consensual sex. One of the things you should be aware of here is that it looks like they're going after anyone who technically meets the conditions of violating the letter of the law. If a woman was under the age of 15 when she became pregnant -- even if she was over 16 at the time that she visited her gynecological provider or family planning clinic to either give birth or obtain an abortion -- and the AG's office believes that her partner was above the age of majority, there's going to be someone poking way into her business real soon now, and into the business of her partner(s) as well as soon as they can track them down, and I would not be at all surprised if the AG's office fully intends to bring statutory rape and/or child sexual abuse charges.
Please be aware that because Kansas law does not acknowledge the ability of women under age 16 to consent to sex, this means that these investigations may affect ANYONE who might fall under this category, even if their relationship and whatever sex took place inside it was fully consensual. This may include cases in which the partners are married. In some cases, statutory rape law is also applied to married couples (there are states in which a young person may legally marry with parental consent at an age younger than the state's age of consent); since minors can marry with parental consent in Kansas, this may apply to some of the Kansas cases in question.
If you are, or know someone who is, a young woman (or the current/former partner of a young woman) who might be affected by the current investigation and subpoena of records in Kansas, be advised that this is going down. You may wish to contact a lawyer if you consider yourself at high risk of being investigated, to find out what your rights and responsibilities are here according to Kansas state law.
