Planned Parenthood CEO Arrested for Indecent Exposure Ousted

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 14, 2012   |   7:06PM   |   Washington, DC

The local Planned Parenthood abortion business CEO who was arrested this week on charges of indecent exposure has been ousted form his position as the head of a local Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliate.

LifeNews reported yesterday that the president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood abortion business in Lubbock, Texas was arrested Monday for indecent exposure at a local baseball field where children play.

As KCBD indicated, “According to Lubbock Police, Tony Ray Thornton, 56, was arrested at the baseball fields inside of Mackenzie Park. According to the incident report, Thornton was taken into custody at 3:25 Monday afternoon. He was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center and released from jail Tuesday morning around 11 a.m.”

The news station reports that Thornton has worked with the abortion business for several years and the Lubbock Planned Parenthood has had its share of problems.

Now, Fox 34 reports that Thornton will no longer serve as the head of the local abortion business and will be replaced by Tara Haskell, formerly the Director of Finance, who will immediately take over his position. A statement from Mariah Sharpe, the board chair, says in part: “Planned Parenthood insists on the highest professional standards, and we will continue to provide essential quality health care to the Lubbock community without interruption.”

The station says Thornton was released on bond Tuesday and Sgt. Jonathan Stewart, Lubbock Police Department spokesman,  said he didn’t know if children were int he area when Thornton was arrested.

Meanwhile, the Lubbock newspaper carried a statement from Thornton apologizing for his actions.

“For more than nine years, I have proudly devoted my professional life to ensuring that the Lubbock community has access to the high quality reproductive health care they are seeking, including life-saving cancer screenings, birth control, prevention and treatment of STDs, breast health services, pap tests, sexual health education, information and health counseling,” Thornton wrote in a statement emailed to The Avalanche-Journal late Wednesday afternoon.

“I deeply regret creating a situation in my personal life that potentially creates a distraction from these goals, and I apologize to the people in the Lubbock community for the incident,” the statement continued. “I will work with my attorney through the appropriate court process to correct any misinformation and take responsibility for errors.”

In his statement, Thornton said the association’s board has appointed Tara Haskell as the interim CEO.

“I am grateful to Tara for her leadership and to all women’s health supporters who continue to focus on the urgent need to ensure that women, men and teens in Lubbock have access to high quality essential health care,” his statement said.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America abortion business nationally quoted Thornton on Twitter as recently as a week ago in a dustup over the Obama Administration’s decision to target a Texas women’s health program because the state pulled taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood from it.

Previously, the Planned Parenthood facility in Lubbock, Texas threw away medical records in a trash bin outside the building.

As part of an investigation into identity theft, KCBD-TV in Lubbock investigated several area medical facilities that had discarded private medical records in dumpsters behind their offices rather than shredding the documents and disposing of them properly.

Documents found in the trash outside Planned Parenthood had the name, social security number, address of clients and specific information about their diagnosis.

The CEO of the Planned Parenthood Association of Lubbock claimed some clients could have thrown the papers away themselves, saying “A possible explanation for this occurrence is that the patient took this piece of paper and threw it in the dumpster, thus explaining why there was a piece of paper outside the large trash bag.”

However, KCBD found more than one piece of paper. The station contacted one of the women whose names appeared on the medical records it obtained.

When shown the document, the woman said “I haven’t been there (Planned Parenthood) in over a year. I have never seen the paper before and there is no way I threw it away.”