Iowa Attorney General Attempts to Pass the Buck On Illegal Abortion Complaint

Des Moines, Iowa – A reporter has told Operation Rescue that the Iowa Attorney General’s office is making several excuses for not pursuing a criminal complaint filed against Planned Parenthood over their telemed abortion scheme even though no one in the office had yet read the complaint.
UPDATE: Read today’s article about this in the Des Moines Register.
Des Moines Register reporter Tony Leys engaged in an e-mail exchange with Troy Newman and Cheryl Sullenger Thursday evening when he asked for reaction to comments made by an unnamed representative in the Attorney General’s office. The current Attorney General is Tom Miller, a pro-abortion Democrat who is up for re-election in November.
“The Iowa attorney general’s office is pointing out to me that they generally wouldn’t decide on criminal charges in such matters. It would be up to the county attorney,” said Leys in an e-mail to Sullenger.
Ley also indicated to Newman that no one in the Attorney General’s office had yet read the complaint, yet the representative thought that the Iowa Board of Medicine should first decide if law had been violated before their office became involved.
“It sounds like the fix is in. The Attorney General already making excuses for why he will not investigate possible illegal abortions by Planned Parenthood and is passing the buck onto others without having even read the complaint,” said Newman. “This smacks of political corruption and cronyism. I have to wonder how close of a relationship Miller has with Planned Parenthood.”
“Because Planned Parenthood’s telemed abortion scheme involves remotely dispensing dangerous abortion drugs at the push of a button in as many as twelve Iowa counties, it was only logical to file our complaint with the Attorney General’s office since he would be the only one to have jurisdiction in all of the locations involved,” said Sullenger. “There is a jurisdictional question since the licensed physician never leaves Polk County, yet distributes abortion drugs to remote counties over 100 miles away. In which county is the crime committed, the county where the button is pushed or the county where the drugs are actually dispensed? Filing with the AG solves the obvious jurisdictional problems.
“As for waiting until the Iowa Medical Board acts, it is irresponsible for the state’s ‘top cop’ to continue to allow women to be placed at risk while they delay law enforcement on the outcome of an investigation of a Board that very likely operates under different burdens of proof.”
In many other states, the medical boards usually act in response to evidence gathered in criminal complaints.
For example, in California, the Board of Osteopathy revoked the license of abortionist Laurence Reich only after his conviction on two counts of sexual assault on his patients. In Kansas, the Attorney General’s office charged and tried abortionist George Tiller before the Board of Healing Arts even made their intentions to discipline him public. In Nebraska, abortionist LeRoy Carhart is simultaneously under investigation by the Department of Health and the Attorney General’s office based on complaints filed by Operation Rescue.
“There is more than enough precedent for the Iowa Attorney General to investigate illegal abortions in his state, with or without the direction of the Iowa Medical Board,” said Newman. “It is troubling that he would so flippantly blow off such a serious matter when the lives and health of women are at stake without ever having laid eyes on the complaint. It makes me wonder what he is trying to hide.”
Contact Attorney General Tom Miller and ask him to investigate Planned Parenthood for their remote-controlled telemed abortion pill scheme.