KS Gov. Brownback Appoints Lawyer for Radical Anti-Abortion Group to State Medical Board
Another front opens up in the Republican Party’s total war on women’s rights, as Kansas’s religious fundamentalist Governor Sam Brownback appoints a lawyer for one of the nation’s most hateful and extreme anti-abortion groups, Operation Rescue, to the state health board that oversees abortion providers: Brownback Taps Lawyer for Anti-Abortion Activists for State Medical Board.
Brownback has tapped Rick Macias, a lawyer that has represented the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, to serve on the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. Operation Rescue is a national group that moved its offices to Kansas in 2007. The group moved in order to focus their opposition work on Dr. George Tiller, who provided late-term abortion services in his Wichita clinic until an anti-abortion extremist murdered him in his church in May 2009.
The 15-member Board of Healing Arts handles licensing for medical doctors, physical therapists, and other health care providers. Macias would serve on the board through June 2014.
Macias has represented anti-abortion activists in cases dating back to the early ’90s in which they were accused of trespassing at Tiller’s clinic to protest. He has also represented Kansans for Life in court. Macias has a private firm specializing in adoption services, and his website includes the tag line, “Your Baby, Your Choices!” He has also supported anti-abortion electoral candidates through the Kansans for Life Political Action Committee. His brother, Archie Macias, currently serves as the treasurer of the PAC.
Also see:
Abortion rights supporters rip Brownback appointment
Operation Rescue (Kansas)
Frank says: