Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Staffer: We Bend the Rules on Sexual Abuse

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 30, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Staffer: We Bend the Rules on Sexual Abuse

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 30
, 2009

Birmingham, AL (LifeNews.com) — A new undercover video shows what others have when it comes to Planned Parenthood and how it handles potential cases of sexual abuse. New footage shows a staffer at a Birmingham, Alabama abortion center telling a woman who appears to be a victim of statutory rape that "we bend the rules."

The video is the latest from Lila Rose, a UCLA student who has become a muckraker for her series of videos exposing the nation’s largest abortion business.

In this new video, the Birmingham Planned Parenthood counselor tells Rose, who pretends to be a 14-year-old statutory rape victim that it "does sometimes bend the rules a little bit" rather than report sexual abuse to state authorities.

Rose told the staffer that she was 14 and had been impregnated by a 31-year-old boyfriend. She told the Planned Parenthood official she needed a secret abortion so her parents would not find out about her sexual relationship with the older man.

Rose asks, "Is it a problem about my boyfriend?"

The counselor, identified as "Tanisha" in the video, responds, "As long as you consented to having sex with him, there’s nothing we can truly do about that."

Rose then says that her boyfriend "said he could get in big trouble," and Tanisha acknowledges that "he could, especially if your parents find out that he’s 31."

The Planned Parenthood official then tells Rose that the center manager, Desiree Bates, "sometimes does bend the rules a little bit" and adds "whatever you tell us stays within these walls" and "we can’t disclose any information to anybody."

However, Alabama code 26-14-3 requires health professionals to disclose suspected cases of sexual abuse to state officials immediately.

"The law is explicit about a healthcare provider’s duty to report, yet Planned Parenthood pretends they cannot say anything," Rose tells LifeNews.com. "Planned Parenthood increases its business and influence by circumventing state reporting laws, but inflicts terrible harm upon the vulnerable young girls sent back to statutory rapists."

The video also shows the Planned Parenthood staff apparently evading the state’s parental consent law.

Tanisha also seems to tell Rose that a signature from an "older sister that’s over the age of 18" or someone "with the same last name" could function as a substitute for parental consent so Planned Parenthood could perform an abortion on a minor.

Yet, Alabama Code 26-21-3 specifies that the written permission of either a parent or legal guardian is necessary before a minor may obtain an abortion.

This is the seventh Planned Parenthood center implicated in a multi-state child abuse scandal involving the deliberate and unlawful suppression of evidence of statutory rape. Alabama is the fourth state to be implicated in the controversy, along with Arizona, Indiana, and Tennessee.

Recently, the investigation of a clinic in Memphis, TN assisted state legislators in their effort to successfully divert nearly $1 million in taxpayer subsidies from Planned Parenthood to law-abiding local health clinics.

"When to ‘bend the rules a little’ means hiding a case of statutory rape from Child Protective Services and looking for ways around the parental consent requirement, Planned Parenthood becomes directly responsible for ensuring that statutory rapists can continue their abuse of young girls," Rose says.

Related web sites:
Live Action Advocates – https://www.liveaction.org

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