Contact: Mary Kay Culp, State Executive Director, Kansans for Life, 913-406-4446, 913-642-5433, kansansforlife@aol.com; Kathy Ostrowski, KFL Legislative Director, 785-250-4502; Additional important links and background available at online version

MEDIA ADVISORY, April 20 /Christian Newswire/ --The following is a statement by Kansans for Life State Executive Director, Mary Kay Culp:

The $26,000 Governor Kathleen Sebelius omitted from her answer to Senator Kyl about Tiller's donations to her or her PAC, was not only a matter of public record, it was in her mailbox a week before her confirmation hearings.

The Leaven, published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, includes the state capitol city of Topeka. It is mailed to every Catholic household each week, usually arriving on Friday.

The March 27th issue contained an article on page 4 entitled "Tiller campaign cash greases political wheels" which included this paragraph:

"For instance, between 1994 and 2001 Tiller, his wife, his clinic, and an earlier PAC of his gave more than $15,000 to Sebelius. Between 2000 and 2002, Tiller and his clinic gave $23,000 to Sebelius' Blue Stem Fund PAC."

It is almost impossible to believe Sebelius didn't see this particular issue, featuring as it did a huge picture of George Tiller on the cover and a smaller picture of her holding a T-shirt memorializing his support of her last election, and featuring four related articles.

One of her closest political allies is fellow Catholic, Larry Gates, who lives in the same Archdiocese. Gates is the Democratic Party's state chair. So close are they, that disability advocates in Kansas have accused the two of possibly committing Medicaid fraud. Some in Kansas also question Sebelius' appointment of Gates' former law partner, who also served on that same board, to the Kansas Supreme Court.

It's simply not believable that staff or acquaintances did not tell Sebelius of the publication. More likely, Sebelius thought she could successfully minimize her Tiller connection, as she had done during her first gubernatorial campaign in 2002.

Kansans for Life and several Catholic legislators held press conferences in November 2002, protesting the deceitful letter Sebelius had sent in October 2002 to Catholics. In that letter, Sebelius intentionally omitted direct funding by George Tiller since 1992, while claiming she was not "pro-abortion" and hadn't been given hundreds of thousands of dollars by an abortion PAC.

From 2002 to 2004, Tiller gave $120,000 to the national Democratic Governor's Association which funneled most of the money back into Kansas in 2005 and 2006 (click here). While not illegal, this scheme allowed the public to continue to be deceived about Tiller's relationship with Sebelius.

The U.S. Senate owes the public a closer and more careful examination of the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as head of America's Health and Human Services Department, especially given that literally volumes of impeccably researched and non-disputed information is easily available here.