The BBC’s World Service, normally obsessively microscopic in its monocular coverage of American affairs, has so far missed the partial-birth decision, omitting any mention of it in its half-hourly bulletins. No doubt there are reasons for this: It’s a procedure almost totally unknown in most Western European countries, where abortions after the first 12 weeks are extremely rare. The Euro-left may be repellent for many reasons, but widespread support for partial-birth abortions isn’t one of them. I wrote about this last October for NRO.

So the BBC may just be saving itself from having to report awkward news. But what’s even more interesting is the low key coverage so far today in the websites run by the two largest papers in Kansas–the Wichita Eagle and the Kansas City Star. I’m curious to see how the big regional dailies treat this story tomorrow, since the court decision banning partial-birth abortions may have a greater impact in Kansas than in any other state in the country.

Dr. George Tiller has made millions from his partial-birth abortion clinic in Wichita, where hundreds (“if not thousands,” according to Bill O’Reilly) of these procedures are performed annually. He is one of the most powerful political donors in the state: Tiller cash is everywhere in Kansas. The local press is usually very kind to him. But critics often charge he has bought the protection given him by Kansas’s political establishment: He’s one of Democratic governor Kathleen Sebelius’s biggest supporters and he was instrumental in funding the 2006 defeat of Phill Kline, the pro-life attorney general, preventing Kline from pursuing the 30 charges he had filled against Tiller. Here’s a week-old AP story by John Hanna outlining some of Tiller’s connections. (The reference in the piece to an investigation of Tiller by Kansas’ new attorney general is risible, however, since Tiller’s support is what got the new man elected.)

So watch the Kansas press for the next day or so. If the Supreme Court succeeds in putting Tiller out of business, it should be big news in Kansas, since the decision might eventually put a few key Kansas Democrats out of work, too.