ARTICLES
October 2002 ARTICLES
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Completely Confidential
Planned Parenthood Accused of Hiding Sexual Abuse
By Maria Elena Kennedy
While researching statistics put out by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood), Mark Crutcher of Texas had a young woman call Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. In her calls, the young woman said that she was thirteen years old and pregnant from her 22-year-old boyfriend. According to Crutcher, 91 per cent of the clinics told the girl that she could come in and have an abortion and they would not report it to the authorities -- in spite of the fact that, in offering medical services, Planned Parenthood is a mandated reporter.
When John O'Neil of Monrovians Against Planned Parenthood first learned about Crutcher's work, he became concerned about the possibility that Planned Parenthood of Pasadena was not reporting the statutory rape of minor girls. O'Neil decided to see if he could convince state and county authorities that Pasadena Planned Parenthood was knowingly safeguarding adult men who molest underage girls. The Pasadena Planned Parenthood web site assures visitors to the site that all services are "completely confidential."
After O'Neil addressed the issue at a Los Angeles County board of supervisors meeting on July 30, board member Mike Antonovich wrote a letter to Dave Thornton, the chief enforcement officer for the Medical Board of California in Sacramento. In his letter, Antonovich requested that the medical board "take the necessary steps to ensure that physicians who are licensed by your Board follow the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, including the completion of the Department of Justice['s]. Suspected Child Abuse Report form." When contacted by this reporter in late August, Ressie Roman, an aide to Supervisor Antonovich, said that they had not received any response from the medical board.
In a September 4 telephone interview, Thorton told me that Antonovich's letter was vague in what it sought. Thorton added that he would be seeking clarification as to what steps the supervisor wanted him to take. When told about allegations regarding the non-reporting by the Encinitas Planned Parenthood [see below], Thorton said that he thought this was what Antonovich was alluding to, but would seek further clarification.
On September 6, Thorton called me and said that his department will be seeking a legal opinion from the state attorney general's office. "There are several laws in conflict," he said, noting that there is "no parental consent law in the state."
When told that the medical board would be asking the attorney general's office for a legal opinion, O'Neil noted that California Attorney General Bill Lockyear is pro abortion.
O'Neil said that when he addressed the county board of supervisors in July he was approached by Los Angeles County department of children and family services director Helen Berberian about Planned Parenthood's failure to report child sexual abuse. Berberian has indicated an interest in what O' Neil is pursuing.
When asked whether or not Planned Parenthood is a mandated reporter, a staffer with the Los Angeles County department of children and family service (who refused to be named) said that it appeared that Planned Parenthood is a mandated reporter of sexual abuse. This staffer noted that the department of children and family services primarily "deals with child abuse that occurs within the home, but as health professionals, Planned Parenthood should be contacting law enforcement if an underage girl is impregnated by a man who is more than ten years older than she is. This should be reported to law enforcement as statutory rape." The staffer noted that if Planned Parenthood called the child abuse hotline to report the fact that an underage girl came into the clinic pregnant, his department would "investigate the parents to see whether they allowed the statutory rape of their daughter."
O'Neil said that when he initially contacted the Pasadena police department about Planned Parenthood, one officer denied that Planned Parenthood was a mandated reporter. Lieutenant Randal Taylor of the Pasadena police department, however, told me that Planned Parenthood is a mandated reporter and is required to report if a minor girl came into the clinic pregnant. Taylor added that Planned Parenthood has not referred any cases involving minor girls to his department.
Supervisor Antonovich also asked Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley's office to investigate whether or not Planned Parenthood was skirting its obligation to report child sexual abuse. In a letter, dated July 31, Senior Special Assistant Lawrence Mason said that the penal code section which details the child abuse reporting act "states that the pregnancy of a minor does not, in and of itself, constitute a basis for a reasonable suspicion of sexual abuse." "Not true," replied O'Neil, in a written annotation of Mason's letter to him. "Fourteen and under is plenty of reason and the only reason, needed to suspect [child sexual abuse]." Mason did not return a call seeking comment for this story.
Antonovich also asked Kathleen Hamilton, the director of the state department of consumer affairs, to "ensure that physicians who are licensed by your Board follow the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting act." The letter was carbon copied to Diana Bonta, the director of the state department of health services. One staffer in Antonovich's office said that she does not recall seeing a response but could not confirm this because she didn't have the file.
In response to a July 17 letter O'Neil sent to his office regarding the non-reporting of statutory rape by Planned Parenthood, Monica Austin, programs manager in the office of Los Angeles County Chief Medical Officer Thomas Garthwaite, said that "in the case of the Planned Parenthood of Pasadena recent recertification survey, HFD (Health Facility Division) staff determined that the clinic was in compliance with the mandatory child abuse reporting requirements. Additionally, HFD staff determined that the clinic's mandatory reporters were trained upon hire on the child abuse reporting requirements." O'Neil responded with a letter asking Dr. Sanford Weinstein, the health facility division consultant medical doctor, whether the Planned Parenthood facility had the Suspect Child Abuse Report form that mandated reporters must fill out when reporting suspected child abuse. O'Neil also asked, "does the facility keep a file of submitted Suspected Child Abuse Reports? If so, how many filings did this facility make in the past 2 to 4 years? Does your inspection verify that these filings were sent to Child Protective Services?" O'Neil told me that Weinstein did not respond to his inquiry.
Besides the alleged non-reporting of suspected child abuse, Planned Parenthood faces another challenge. On August 21, the United States Justice Foundation filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside counties for unlawful business practices and the wrongful termination of a former Planned Parenthood employee, Megan Allen. United States Justice Foundation attorney Rich Ackerman, who filed the lawsuit in Riverside superior court on behalf of Megan Allen, has categorized the lawsuit as a "time bomb" because it exposes Planned Parenthood's blatant disregard for safe medical practices.
Allen said that soon after she started working in a San Diego area Planned Parenthood office in May of this year, she became alarmed by the abortion clinic's disregard for standard medical procedures. When she pointed out problems she noticed regarding the way the clinic personnel performed abortions, she said that she was told "not to worry." When Allen persisted in voicing her concerns, Planned Parenthood fired her.
Allen said Planned Parenthood fired her "for being a whistle blower. They didn't like the fact that I was pointing out that they are not using licensed surgical technicians for assisting with the abortions," she said in a telephone interview.
In addition to using non-qualified personnel in assisting with abortions, Allen said that clinic workers also "recap needles and do not perform surgical counts" when abortions are being performed. When asked what she hoped to gain by filing a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, Allen said that she would like to see them "held more accountable and not be allowed to offer abortions to anyone sixteen or under without parental consent. I think there should be parental consent," she noted. Allen said that she is troubled by the fact that women who come to Planned Parenthood received little or no counseling with regards to their options. "I would like to see more options offered. The girls are not always told that there is the option of adoption. About fifty percent of the time they don't even tell them about other options besides abortion. I was told by the manager that if the girl is here she has already made her mind up so we don't need to talk to them about options."
Echoing O'Neil and Crutcher's concerns about the lack of reporting by Planned Parenthood, Allen says that she knows that Planned Parenthood clinics, who are legally mandated reporters, "are not reporting age fourteen and under pregnancies. They have to report these; it's even in their protocols." Allen said that the counselors are trained not to question the girls about their ages.
O'Neil said he hopes his efforts, combined with the lawsuit in San Diego, will force Planned Parenthood to report the statutory raping of minor girls instead of harboring the perpetrators. "We need to teach children to go to their parents when they are in trouble and not to Planned Parenthood," said O'Neil. "These older men who are molesting kids should be prosecuted. There was an outrage when bishops and cardinals were sheltering molesters. Planned Parenthood is no different; they are hiding child molesters."
Planned Parenthood attorney James McElroy of San Diego County did not return calls for comment.