National, Ohio Medical Groups Help Planned Parenthood Hide Secret Abortions

From http://www.lifenews.com/nat4680.html

National, Ohio Medical Groups Help Planned Parenthood Hide Secret Abortions

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 29, 2008

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Columbus, OH (LifeNews.com) -- In what pro-life advocates are calling a case of misplaced priorities, national and Ohio medical groups are siding with Planned Parenthood against an Ohio couple that sued the abortion business for violating state law by failing to alert them when their daughter requested an abortion.

The case involves a girl who was 14-years-old at the time of the abortion.

The girl in the case was a victim of rape and eventually had an abortion at a local Planned Parenthood facility without their knowledge or consent as required by state law.

The girl's parents filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio for violating the state's parental notification law by not telling them of her abortion, which may have been coerced.

The teen provided an incorrect phone number to Planned Parenthood officials for notification. Instead of giving the abortion center her parents' phone, she gave the number for her 22-year-old boyfriend -- her soccer coach John Haller.

Haller started having sexual relations with the teenager when she was 13 and he was eventually convicted in 2004 of sexual battery and spent three years in prison. He signed off on the abortion instead of the teen's father.

In their suit against Planned Parenthood, the teen's parents want the abortion business to turn over to their attorney the abortion records of all women under the age of 18 to determine if there have been other cases and to show how the abortion business handles them.

The Ohio Supreme Court heard the case in October and now information has come to light showing major medical groups siding with Planned Parenthood.

Nancy Gillette, general counsel to the Ohio State Medical Association, says her group filed a friend-of-the-court brief along to support Planned Parenthood's request to keep the medical records private.

Even though the records would be redacted -- containing no identifying patient information beyond generic information such as the age of the teen involved. A trial court that initially heard the case agreed to the records' request with the identifying patient information omitted.

Yet, the medial groups went forward with their amicus briefs anyway -- making it appear to some pro-life advocates that they believe patient privacy is more important than protecting a teenager who is a victim of sexual abuse from having a secret abortion without her parents knowing.

"We have to make sure the physician-patient privilege means something," Gillette said on Monday in an interview with the AMA's newsletter.

In addition, the Litigation Center of the American Medical Association and State Medical Societies and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also filed amicus briefs backing Planned Parenthood in the case.

Gillette says the privacy of minors must be protected or they will fail to seek medical treatment -- yet the obtaining of an abortion without proper consent is a violation of Ohio state law.

And with Planned Parenthood staff in neighboring Ohio resigning or fired from their positions for covering up alleged cases of statutory rape, pro-life advocates say it appears there is good reason for the parents' attorney to seek the records to determine if Planned Parenthood has violated Ohio law in other cases involving minors.

Kristan Hawkins, the executive director of Students for Life of America, recently revealed the footage of staff at a Planned Parenthood abortion center in North Carolina covering up an incident of statutory rape. It depicts a college student pretending to be an underage girl who is a sexual assault victim.

Planned Parenthood staffers acknowledged the girl was a victim of statutory rape and admitted they were required to report the incident.

"Well legally though, it's illegal. It's statutory rape," a Planned Parenthood official tells the student.

Officials at the abortion business never follow up on the statutory rape question when the girl says her ride is leaving and needs to make an appointment. They then remind the girl that her mother's boyfriend can purchase the Plan B drug at a local drug store since she is under 18.

After the visit, Students for Life of America filed a North Carolina Public Records Request to find out if the Planned Parenthood location had reported the crime. SFLA has obtained and posted documents, which show that the crime was not reported to authorities in Charlotte.

Hawkins told LifeNews.com that the video of the conversation is "shocking."
"That Planned Parenthood staffers acknowledged the girl was being raped and then did not report the crime is horrific," she said. "They were willing to allow this girl to go home to her rapist and even confirmed that the predator could get the morning after pill for her to cover up his crime."

"This proves that what went on in Ohio is happening in Planned Parenthoods across America," Hawkins contends.

ACTION: Send your complaints to the Ohio State Medical Association at 3401 Mill Run Dr, Hilliard, OH 43026, (614) 527-6762. Call (800) 766-6762, fax (614) 527-6763, or email info@osma.org.

Related web sites:
Expose video - http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=ydprvknz6U

Students for Life - http://www.studentsforlife.org

SFLA public records request - http://www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/plannedparenthoodinvestigation




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