Operation Rescue is considering a lawsuit to gain the information
Wichita, KS – Operation Rescue has received a censored copy of the 911 “CAD” transcript generated by an emergency call from Women?s Health Care Services on February 17, 2005. OR had requested the audio file of the 911 conversation as well but was denied by Emergency Communications director Diane Gage, citing that it contained ?confidential health information.?
The call to 911 Emergency Communications was made on February 17, 2005, at 10:54 AM by George Tiller, who was not on the scene at the abortion clinic at the time. Tiller requested an ambulance to transport a 30-year old female patient to Wesley Medical Center. Tiller reported that she was conscious and breathing, and that the evaluation to transport her was made by a “nurse or doctor.” “This is a transfer/interfacility case,” read the transcript.
Operation Rescue broke this story with eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence that another victim of a botched abortion at Tiller’s infamous late-term abortion mill had been rushed to the hospital.
A space with room for approximately six lines of text was redacted from the transcript. The information was removed, citing a rule that does not allow the release of “Medical, Psychiatric, psychological or alcoholism or drug dependency treatment records which pertain to identifiable patients.”
“The key words in that rule are ‘identifiable patients,'” said OR staff member Cheryl Sullenger, who made the request under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA). “The patient cannot be identified from this tape unless George Tiller mentioned her by name, which is highly unlikely given his extreme efforts to block the release of patient names to the attorney general in a child sex abuse investigation. And even if her name was mentioned, that information could be deleted and the rest of the audio file and written transcript produced without compromising the privacy of the patient. This is perfectly acceptable under the law.”
“We believe that Ms. Gage has most likely violated the laws of the State of Kansas by improperly citing KORA exemptions that clearly do not apply to these situations as we understand them,” said Sullenger. “This leads me to wonder what Ms. Gage has to hide, and why she would risk violating the law to protect George Tiller.”
Operation Rescue is considering options to obtain the censored material, including filing legal action.
View CAD Transcript of Tiller’s 911 call on 2/17/05
