Partisans on both sides of the abortion issue are focused on Kansas, as a case long tangled in the Kansas judicial system appears as if it might finally be destined for a criminal court in Johnson County, where Planned Parenthood faces 107 criminal counts.

It's the most prominent case in a wave of criminal proceedings involving Planned Parenthood in other states, too.

“I don’t know if the people of Kansas realize how all eyes in the pro-life community are watching this case,” said Jennifer Giroux, Executive Director of Women Influencing the Nation.

“There are a lot of people who have filed plaintiff lawsuits against Planned Parenthood for botched abortions or for failing to report statutory rape," she said. "But what’s never happened is the filing of a criminal case against Planned Parenthood involving felony charges in which probable cause has been found to proceed. That’s what sets Kansas and this case apart.”

Giroux praised Johnson County DA Phill Kline for his perseverance in bringing the case. She said the abortion industry had “poured money” into Kansas to help defeat Kline in his quest for a second term as Attorney General. When Kline was unseated by Paul Morrison, she said, it allowed Planned Parenthood to “hold up the scalp of Phill Kline and say to other prosecutors: ‘Don’t even try’.”

Kline, after assuming the office of Johnson County District Attorney and resuming his investigation of Planned Parenthood was portrayed in the Kansas media as a “zealot,” Giroux said.

“He’s not a zealot by holding Planned Parenthood to the same legal standard as anyone else,” Giroux said.

Giroux said Kline is the first District Attorney to obtain records related to abortions for use in a criminal case. However, it remains to be seen whether the Kansas Supreme Court will okay his use of records in the criminal prosecution of Planned Parenthood.

Abortion providers typically use  "patient confidentiality" as grounds for prohibiting monitoring of clinics' activities. Kline's success in emphasizing that the Kansas records contain no personally identifying information may be helping others attempt to follow suit.

In Ohio, for example, the state Supreme Court is considering whether to allow the use of records from an abortion provider in a suit against Planned Parenthood.

The suit, filed by the parents of an underage abortion recipient, contends that Planned Parenthood failed to notify the state of the statutory rape of their then 14-year-old daughter, who was taken by the 21-year-old soccer coach who had impregnated her to a clinic, where she received an abortion.

Her parents were not notified before the abortion was performed. The parents sought abortion records from the clinic but a state appeals court denied that request. The decision was appealed by Planned Parenthood and is now pending before the Ohio Supreme Court.

A similar case has been filed in another Ohio county. In that case, the plaintiffs allege that Planned Parenthood performed an abortion on a minor who was brought to a clinic by her father who was allegedly attempting to cover up his sexual abuse of the teen.

Giroux said she was “offended” that despite these and other allegations against Planned Parenthood, the organization continues to receive significant federal funding. It is not known whether or not Planned Parenthood has conducted similar procedures in Kansas because so far the state Supreme Court has kept records from which all personal information has been removed from being used in a criminal proceedings.

“Planned Parenthood has received $3.9 billion in federal taxpayer funds since 1987 and this year they’re getting $350 million,” Giroux said. “As a woman and the mother of five daughters I’m offended that they continue receiving federal funding when we see the fallout in terms of damage to young girls and their families. It’s amazing they are getting so much taxpayer money when they’re facing this many allegations.”

She said some pro-abortion advocates were apparently unsatisfied with even the $350 million subsidy, and attempted to insert additional federal funding for Planned Parenthood into a bill to continue funding for operations in Iraq.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, inserted a provision in the war funding bill that would have assisted Planned Parenthood and other family planning enterprises to buy birth control and the Plan B drug at a discount.

President Bush vetoed the bill on Tuesday.

Giroux said Kline’s prosecution of Planned Parenthood had already spurred one attempt in the U.S. Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.

Last year, a coalition of U.S. Senators cited Kline’s case in seeking the elimination of federal funding for Planned Parenthood, but that effort failed.

Giroux said her group would be launching a petition drive soon in support of another attempt to defund the organization.

In Kansas, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has hosted fund-raising events for Planned Parenthood and attended others.

The national office of media relations for Planned Parenthood did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

• More on the web: "The GOP's Dirty Dozen." Tony Perkins' Washington Update (FRC).