Posted on 05/11/2007 12:13:43 PM PDT by Sopater
(CNSNews.com) - Planned Parenthood is under fire after one of its employees was recorded encouraging a student - who was posing as a pregnant minor - to lie about her age in order to obtain an abortion without the abortion provider having to report the "statutory rape" to the police.
Lila Rose, an 18-year-old sophomore at the University of California Los Angeles, visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city, posing as a 15-year-old impregnated by her 23-year-old boyfriend. The visit was part of an investigation for The Advocate, a new pro-life magazine distributed on the UCLA campus.
California law requires abortion clinics to report instances of statutory rape to police. The age of consent in California is 16.
In covertly-filmed video of the meeting between Rose and an unnamed Planned Parenthood employee, the staffer is heard to tell Rose: "If you're 15, we have to report it ... If you're not, if you're older than that, then we don't need to."
"Okay, but if I just say I'm not 15, then it's different?" Rose asks.
"You could say 16," the worker replies, later adding, "Just figure out a birth date that works. And I don't know anything."
Other parts of the video clip show the manager of another Planned Parenthood clinic encouraging Rose to seek an abortion.
The woman relates that having herself given birth at the age of 17, 16 years ago, the decision had severely hindered her education and life goals. "If I would do it again, I would not continue the pregnancy," she is heard telling Rose.
Rose told Cybercast News Service that she wants to hold abortion providers accountable for how they treat women in crisis pregnancies and to ensure "that abortion is not sold like a blender at Sears."
"The public's eyes need to be opened to the fact that they're really not to be trusted as far as the way that they handle the situation with minor girls who are in trouble, or even the way they counsel in a pro-abortion way," Rose said.
Kathy Kneer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California - the state public policy office of Planned Parenthood - criticized Rose's tactics but told Cybercast News Service that staff has been notified of its policy to follow all reporting laws.
"We believe the individuals behind this are doing this not out of motivation to protect teens but in fact to discredit Planned Parenthood," Kneer said of Rose and her male accomplice. "They went in with an objective to manipulate our staff, and they did succeed in manipulating our staff."
Rose defended her undercover methods, which she said provides "the way to find out what really goes on behind closed doors in a clinic, what really goes about to influence these life-changing decisions."
"The only way that I or anyone else is really going to make a difference in how women are influenced by either Planned Parenthood or their clinics or the health centers on their campuses or any other abortion agencies ... is to become one of those women and to really experience it themselves," she said.
While Kneer was critical of Rose's approach, she acknowledged that the staff had violated Planned Parenthood policies.
"It is against Planned Parenthood's policy to counsel clients in this fashion, period," Kneer said. "It is our policy to completely comply with all reporting laws. We regularly train and retrain our staff on all aspects of reporting laws."
"The staff gave an incorrect answer," Kneer said of the employee who suggested that Rose lie about her age. "She should have said, 'It's reportable' and ended the conversation there. But she allowed herself to be manipulated by Lila, and that's against our policy."
Kneer said Planned Parenthood "immediately notified all of our staff and reminded them that this is in violation of our policy, and we continue to do that on a regular basis."
Rose said she would continue to investigate abortion providers and that Planned Parenthood would not be the only target. "They're not the only organization promoting abortion in our society," she said. "My end goal in doing any of this is to hold any abortion provider responsible for everything that they do.
"They need to admit there's a problem and work to change it if they really want to protect women and promote true choice for women," she said.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Always
Be
Closing
I was wondering about that too.
“So, how does your 16-year-old child feel about that?”
Great question!
Selfish and shallow as usual, that’s the way I took that remark - she doesn’t regret becoming pregnant, she’s just happy her “choice” didn’t “ruin her life”.
Of course PP lies, that whole organization is built around deceit.
What exactly is the difference?
Translastion: "Giving birth when I was 17 was tough. I had to work hard to finish school, start a career, pay for necessities, and raise a child. Now that I have a 16 year old, was it all worth it? No. I wish I would've killed her when it was still legal. It's always better to take the easy way out."
Can someone explain how it was the eric rudolf was so wrong?What a pack of murdering dirtbags.
She said that visit she felt just dirty being there.
PP is embedded in the public school system and sex education system and is THE place our children know they can go with no questions asked.
My daughter, BTW, carried our precious grandchild through her senior year in high school, gave birth to a beautiful little girl before graduation and graduated on the honor roll.
Look for PP to push a law making it a crime to lie about your age to an abortion provider, to tape conversations with them, or to lie about being pregnant or the circumstances of your pregnancy.
Just like they are fighting the use of sonograms.
Setting off bombs in order to murder folks is wrong. This is not a difficult concept.
And whom did he murder?And where did they work? Just remember the nazis sanctioned killing the jews and whoever else ran afoul of them. That didnt make it right did it?.
Your example has absolutely no similarity to your argument and you are downright scary. I guess if innocent passersby were killed just because they were walking down a street in the city would be dandy because the bomb was intended for abortionists? You actually believe that Rudolph had it right? Unreal.
If I recall correctly, Rudolf set some of his bombs with time delays, which can easily hit bystanders, firemen, police and rescue workers who have nothing to do with the abortion clinic.
But nobody was walking down the street were they? They worked in the “clinic” didnt they? What do you think went on in the clinic? All Im saying is I didnt lose any sleep over what he did. However I do lose sleep over what is happening to the unborn babies in those “clinics”. What say you?
I’ve already answered.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.