Dr. George Tiller, operator of a clinic in Wichita that performs late-term abortions, dodged another legal bullet Thursday when a grand jury in Wichita investigating his practice disbanded without returning indictments.

In a statement released following its adjournment, the grand jury said that although it appeared Tiller’s Wichita clinic performed “questionable” late-term abortions, interpretations of Kansas’ laws on abortion have created so much confusion that the grand jury not only found it impossible to issue indictments, they weren't clear on who had created the interpretations.

“As the current law is written and interpreted by the Kansas Supreme Court, late-term abortions will continue for many circumstances that would seem, as a matter of common interpretation, not to meet the definition of ‘substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function,'” the grand jury said in its statement.

In fact, no court has ever issued any rulings on Kansas' abortion laws. Instead, the interpretations of the law have been made by state and local prosecutors who are abortion supporters.

State law only allows abortions after the 22^nd week of pregnancy if two doctors who are financially unaffiliated agree that the pregnancy is causing “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." Former Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall ruled "a major bodily function" included undefined "mental health reasons."

The Stovall interpretation has pushed Kansas' abortion practices so far outside the mainstream that even Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has a history of solid support for abortion, has rejected the Stovall interpretation.

Only last week, Obama told the AP, "I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term." In a later interview intended to clarify his statement, Obama said, "It's not just a matter of feeling blue."

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, who launched an investigation against Tiller’s clinic when he served as Kansas' attorney general, said a nationally renowned psychiatrist from The Johns Hopkins University reviewed files from Tiller’s clinic and determined that reasons cited by the clinic to justify late-term abortions included stress about not being able to compete in athletic events or attend a rock concert.

Two district court judges reviewed Kline's evidence and found probable cause for proceeding with the case. However, a string of prosecutorial interpretations by former Attorney General Paul Morrison and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston have made the law meaningless, Kline said.

“Dr. Tiller is willing to abort a healthy child moments from natural birth and celebrate the act as choice,” Kline said. “Why should we believe that he and those who support him are willing to apply the ‘clear’ wording of Kansas law?”

In an email message, Kline wrote, "We are losing the rule of law because the powerful in our culture are willing to interpret words to support their purpose rather than recognize the truth the words represent.  And we will lose the rule of law unless those of us who know better take a stand, rather than cower or flee."

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, which organized the petition drive that resulted in the seating of the grand jury, blamed the lack of indictments on poor counsel given to jurors by Ann Swegle, acting under the supervision of Foulston who had opposed investigating Tiller in the first place. Culp said her group would work to unseat Foulston this fall.

A call to Foulston’s office was not returned Thursday.

Tiller still faces 19 misdemeanor counts in Sedgwick County District Court, a proceeding that has been delayed four times at the request of the defendant. A trial is expected to commence July 28.

Tiller is charged with performing late-term abortions without obtaining the signature of a doctor unaffiliated with his Wichita abortion clinic.

The 19 misdemeanor charges were filed in June 2007, when Paul Morrison was still attorney general. The criminal complaint indicates that, of the 19 charges, 13 were related to late-term abortions performed on girls 16 years of age and younger.

In one case, the abortion recipient was 10 years old.

• This story was updated and corrected on July 6, 2008, at 11:48 am.
  

• Read the grand jury statement here.