February 25, 2005
(Updated Feb 27, 2005)

The paragraph deleted today:  
Tiller and his ProKanDo PAC 
Used Health Records from Clinic for Fundraising

Firestorm of Controversy Over Kline's Records Demand
Modified:2/25/2005 6:55:21 PM 

…
Mary Kay Culp, … claimed that Women's Health Care Services of Wichita, was being hypocritical in its claim of privacy, since its own privacy policy, published on its website, said that they released private patient information to their own fundraisers. That information was removed from the website early Friday afternoon. …

Mary Kay Culp predicted this removal in this AP story, which appeared on the Kansas City Star web site courtesy of John Hanna and the Associated Press:

Fund-raising statement on Tiller's Web site draws criticism

. . .The apparent inconsistency - a mistake, Tiller's spokeswoman said - was quickly noticed by Kansans for Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group. They called it proof that Tiller isn't as concerned about patient privacy as he claims.

"I don't know if I can quite convey how hypocritical this is," said Mary Kay Culp, the group's executive director.

Kansas for Life pointed out the Web site statement Friday morning. By early afternoon, after a reporter contacted clinic spokeswoman Julie Burkhart, it was no longer online.

"That was actually mistakenly put on there," she said. Burkhart said Tiller doesn't disclose the information to fund-raising staff and said she didn't know how the statement was placed on the site.

Culp was skeptical. She predicted the clinic would remove the statement once reporters asked about it.  . . .

The current page from Tiller's Clinic with his "Notice of Privacy Practices" can be see online here:  http://www.drtiller.com/notice.html

What was the information Tiller deleted today?  The "Way Back Machine" (http://www.archive.org) makes periodic snapshots of many web pages on the Internet and has this information archived.  Just go to the WayBack machine and enter Tiller's web site address, and press the "Take Me Back" button to see this information yourself.

Here's a direct link to all Tiller's archived pages on the Wayback Macine:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.drtiller.com 

If you select the most recent snapshot (Jan 31, 2004) and select the button on the lower left "Notice of Privacy Practices," on that page you can see that this paragraph was online on Jan 31, 2004, but is now missing: http://web.archive.org/web/20040213225001/www.drtiller.com/notice.html 

·        Fundraising Communications.
We may contact you to request a tax-deductible contribution to support important activities of Women’s Health Care Services, PA and/or ProKanDo. In connection with any fundraising, we may disclose to out fundraising staff demographic information about you (e.g. your name, address and phone number) and dates of health care that we provided you. If you do not want to receive any fundraising requests in the future, you may contact our Privacy Officer at (316)-684-5108.

This paragraph was obtained from the Way Back Machine's stored copy, the most recent of which was Jan. 31, 2004.

According to Mary Kay Culp, the version of the paragraph she copied February 24 before calling the press, and the one the Associated Press copied the next morning before calling the clinic, did not contain the word "tax-deductible".

Evidently, Tiller removed the word "tax-deductible" sometime between Jan. '04 and Feb. 24, '05. (This was very prudent given that donations to political action committees are NOT tax-deductible.  No telling how long it was there before they fixed it.)

IN ANY EVENT, THE FUNDRAISING PARAGRAPH WAS ON TILLER'S WEBSITE WITH OR WITHOUT THE WORD "TAX-DEDUCTIBLE" BACK TO JUNE, 2003.

Tiller's spokesperson told the AP that the paragraph was a "mistake" meaning it was a "mistake" that they failed to correct from June 2003 until February 25, 2005.  They knew the paragraph was on their site because within the last year they removed the word "tax-deductible" from it.

Here are related stories:

General Counsel for KS Governmental Ethics Commission Contributes to Controversial PAC

Dr. Tiller hijacks education issue:  
Channels secret money to influence Kansas Senate Races in 2004

K a n s a s M e a d o w l a r k @ e f g 2 . c o m