Planned Parenthood of Indiana is reeling from the disclosure of an undercover video showing a counselor telling a woman posing as a 13-year-old girl that she doesn’t care about the age of the man who impregnated her — a violation of state law. The video below was shot by an anti-abortion group called Live Action.
The video here shows a nursing aide who is told by the woman that she is 13 years old and that she was impregnated by a 31 year old man. “I don’t care how old he is,” the counselor says in the video.
Indiana law required that workers report any sexual acts between an adult and a child under 14. Planned Parenthood has called for the retraining of its staff and immediately suspended the two staff members involved in the video controversy.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office in Indianapolis, however, is looking into any laws that might have been violated with the possibility of a grand jury investigation — though the violations appear an aberration.
The use of such undercover taping is itself an interesting element. The woman is a very young looking 20-year-old UCLA student named Lila Rose, who was posing as a 13-year-old. The courts have rejected claims that such undercover videos violate privacy rights in tort actions. A very analogous case was decided by Judge Richard Posner in Desnick v. American Broadcasting Co.. The court held that ABC PrimeTime did not violate privacy protections when it used a hidden camera and fake patients to show what it alleged were unnecessary cataract surgeries performed at an ophthalmic clinic. Posner, writing for a unanimous panel, held that “consent to an entry is often given legal effect even though the entrant has intentions that if known to the owner of the property would cause [the owner] . . . to revoke his consent.”
Yet, an abortion clinic comes with some added constitutional concerns. To the extent that such undercover activities are viewed as harassing the right to choose, it could lead to challenges.
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Excellent content here and a nice writing style too – keep up the great work!
Rose does not strike me as sincere about wanting to stop child sexual abuse. If she was, she should be, at minimum, taping interactions at all centers that counsel young people on pregnancy, including those who tell young women abortion is evil (and many of these exist) and refuse any refereals to it. (My friend went to one of these and was told she was a sinner in the eyes of God for even thinking about an abortion.) Closing Planned Parenthood is obviously not going to help end child sexual abuse, in fact, it would likely escalate it. So when I see Rose going to every type of clinic, including avowedly anti abortion ones, I will be closer to believing that is her motive.
That being said, Planned Parenthood is right to take this very seriously and to do a complete investigation. Rose should release the whole tape for examination and the investigation should go forward.
Entrapment is a defense not a crime.
Planned Parenthood, in addition to providing safe confidential family planning services, is also an information and referral resource.
Establishing trust and maintaining an open dialogue with a teenager sometimes takes ‘finesse’. No one can judge this nurse’s experience and/or communication style based on one encounter or how a similar scenario would have turned out since this was a set-up.
Personally, I would have doubted the 31 year-old lover scenario.
Truly pregnant scared ‘consenting’ thirteen year-olds who feel trapped and out of options may decide to take matters away from the ‘professionals’ entirely and into their own hands, possibly discarding the infant, rendered infertile from a botched abortion,
or worse.
Rose sounds like a menace with her own agenda.
Injunction, anyone?
I’m with you on this one Patty
I´m with patty as well. They have to make sure that kids have as little as possible to fear when going to theese clinics and can count on confidentiality so that they will go there rather then doing something dangerous or having a child while still children themselfes.
as inportant as it is to stop pedophiles, the first priority should be to help the children.