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U.S. Abortion Centre Put on Probation for Violating Regulations : 1st Mar 10
In the USA, state health officials have put an abortion centre in Birmingham, Alabama, on probation after pro-life activists targeted it in an undercover “sting”. State inspectors, who went to the Planned Parenthood centre after the sting by the pro-life group Live Action, cited problems with the reporting of suspected sexual abuse and how the centre obtained parental consent for minors.
Rick Harris, director of Alabama’s Bureau of Health Provider Standards, said the business failed to get minors’ signatures on forms verifying parental consent, which is a technical violation. “To me this is the problem: You would think that an abortion clinic that intended to be law-abiding would have a lawyer or someone in the facility personally sit down and read what the statute requires and that obviously hadn’t been done”, he told the Associated Press.
While on probation, the clinic is subject to increased inspections and the health department can start proceedings to revoke its licence if it doesn’t correct the violations or if more turn up during the year. An activist with the San José, California-based Live Action posed as a 14-year-old girl impregnated by her 31-year-old boyfriend and told employees at the Birmingham centre she wanted a secret abortion.
An audiotape of the 2008 visit allegedly caught an employee of Birmingham Planned Parenthood saying the centre sometimes bends the rules and suggesting that someone other than a parent or legal guardian could give consent for a minor to abort her baby. “We have seen this across the country in our investigative work and have released videos from several other states showing the same activity”, said Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action.
After the group released the tape last year, state health inspectors reviewed the centre’s records and found that nine minors, ages 13-15, had undergone abortions without proper proof of parental consent since November, 2008. Mercury News. February 10.
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