2nd video might show staff ignoring sexual abuse
ssociated Press
3:03 PM CST, December 16, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS - An anti-abortion group released a video that it claims shows staff at a second Planned Parenthood clinic ignoring Indiana law on reporting sexual abuse of an underage girl.
The release of the video Tuesday by the West Coast-based group Live Action led one lawmaker to urge Attorney General Steve Carter to investigate and to ask the Family and Social Services Administration to suspend Medicaid payments and other government funding to Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
Planned Parenthood said it had suspended without pay a counselor shown in the second video while it investigates the matter.
The edited video secretly shot by a 20-year-old college student posing as a girl of 13 shows a counselor at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis saying she didn’t care that the man who impregnated the girl was 31 years old.
“I don’t care how old he is,” said the counselor, identified only as Janet.
Indiana law requires anyone learning of sexual acts between an adult and a child under 14 to report them to police or child welfare authorities.
Planned Parenthood fired an aide at a Bloomington clinic after the release of a similar video two weeks ago by Live Action, which has three chapters in California and one in Oregon.
Both videos were shot on the same day, June 24, said Lila Rose, the UCLA junior who posed as the 13-year-old.
“It’s documenting the pattern of abuse that appears at Planned Parenthood of Indiana,” Rose said in a telephone interview.
Both videos also include footage of Planned Parenthood staff advising the patient that other states offer abortions to minor girls without the need for parental consent, which Indiana requires.
Planned Parenthood, which operates a network of 35 health clinics across Indiana, including three that offer abortions, issued a statement Tuesday saying its first priority was to its patients, but it was committed to following all state laws.
“Although we have not yet been able to verify the accuracy of the video content, we are conducting an immediate and rigorous review of the situation. Furthermore, the employee who appears in the video has been suspended without pay until the review is completed,” the statement said.
Planned Parenthood said that since the release of the first video, it has retrained its staff members on policies, procedures and abuse-reporting requirements.
State Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Lakeville, sent a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Carter and to FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob asking them to investigate and to cut off any government funding, including Medicaid funds, that Planned Parenthood receives.
“I believe we must look out for the safety of Hoosier minors in this State,” Walorski’s letter said.
A state contracts database shows Planned Parenthood of Indiana currently has four or five state contracts valued at more than $3 million, the largest a two-year grant for family planning services.
Carter’s office acknowledged it had received Walorski’s letter but would not say whether an investigation was under way. FSSA spokesman Lauren Auld said the agency had no comment on the letter.
The Monroe County prosecutor’s office has said it will not pursue the Bloomington case unless it receives a police report. It wasn’t clear Tuesday if a complaint has been filed with police in connection with either video.
Mario Massillamany, a deputy Marion County prosecutor, said the office learned of the Indianapolis video Tuesday afternoon and was reviewing it.
Live Action bills itself on its Web site as a “youth led human rights movement dedicated to the respect and protection of all human life including the unborn.”
Rose said the only Indiana clinics her group visited were in Bloomington and Indianapolis but it also has gone to Planned Parenthood centers in other states. ——
On the Net:
Live Action: www.liveactionfilms.org
Planned Parenthood of Indiana: www.ppin.org
source www.chicagotribune.com
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