I cant find it on any news websites, but just heard on abc news that Darth Ashcroft sent in his stormtroopers to dozens of Planned Parenthood's to take medical records of people who have gotten abortions. And supeanod(?) records from several university hospitals.

They are trying to find if any illegal (new partial birth law) abortions were done.

(note: I am no fan of abortion.) But i cant believe that the government is doing this. Dont they need proof or something before they come and violate someones privacy?

Proof to try to find out if someone is a criminal? Umm...I would guess that you kind of wave that privacy a little if you commit a crime.

ever hear of a search warrant? the government cant bash into where ever they want.

i guess if you ARE the "justice" department, you can do whatever you want.

Subpoenaed? I don't think there's anything stormtrooperish about investigating medical records to make sure no laws get broken. That's good actually; one of the biggest problems we have in this country is lack of law enforcement.

Random searchs of records for possible violations (NOT known or probable violations) is one step above randomly entering houses to see if any crimes have been committed. We fought a war over this folks-it was called the American Revolution.

Mr. Ashcroft has absolutely no respect for the Bill of Rights and has proven that time and time again. He will not be happy until he has protected Americans by removing all of the rights that set us apart from dictatorships.

The Taliban had nothing on these kinds of tactics.

This is why we voted in a dead guy over him for Congress in 2000.

Assuming we are talking about the same story, the facts seem to be a little bit misrepresented here. Last year a law was passed banning what is commonly known as a partial birth abortion. Through whatever channels, the justice department received reports that doctors had preformed the procedure anyway. So in the course of the investigation, Ashcroft goes to court to try and subpoena the medical records of the patients that had the procedure to find out if in fact that they had had partial birth abortions. The judge said no, we won't grant access to medical records for that reason. So Ashcroft comes back and says that they don't care about the names on the medical records or the identity of the patients, all they care about is if the doctors were preforming a particular medical procedure. The last I heard, the judge said no to that as well.

Ashcroft isn't storming in to Planned Parenthood offices. He is using the legal system to try and gain access to records. Up to this point he had been denied access. I'm really not sure what illegal thing he is supposed to be doing.

This is the only reference I can find to the story, and it doesn't say anything like the original post infered. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/US/planned_parenthood_040226-2.html

Everyone knows that PBA's are still happening. If doctors want to continue the procedures then let the Justice Department search.

They have to have probable cause for that to matter. Ashcroft is one of the worst things that has happened to both the Missouri and Federal Governments. Having a man like this be the chief legal officer of the United States in a time where he has tools like the PATRIOT Act is a terrible turn of events. It is the first time since the McCarthy-ist 50s that the liberties that Americans cherish so much have actually been restricted instead of expanded.

Ashcroft sucks. I'm ashamed he is from Missouri

I agree with Beavis, it used to be you would be labeled a "commie". Now they label you a "terrorist". (to be fair, the red scare was far more serious than what we are currently doing now, and had a far greater and far worse effects for all people).