News

By Kathleen Gilbert

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, December 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood suspended a Bloomington abortion clinic employee after new footage from an undercover camera was released Wednesday showing the staff member deliberately ignoring the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl by a 31-year-old and advising her to seek an abortion in another state to avoid Indiana’s strict parental consent laws.

The footage shows Lila Rose, a UCLA student journalist and president of right-to-life advocacy group Live Action, posing as a 13-year-old seeking abortion. In an appointment with a Planned Parenthood nurse, Rose says she has been impregnated by a 31-year-old man, a clear case of child molestation punishable as a felony under Indiana state law.

On tape, the nurse acknowledges her responsibility to report the abuse, but assures Rose she will not. The nurse says, “I am supposed to report to Child Protective Services,” but tells Rose, “Okay, I didn’t hear the age [of the 31-year-old]. I don’t want to know the age.”

She then instructs Rose how to obtain a secret abortion by crossing state lines to avoid Indiana’s parental consent law.  The nurse also coaches Rose to cover for the 31-year-old man by saying he is only 14. She says, “You’ve seen him around, you know he’s 14, he’s in your grade and whatever. You know what I mean.”

(To see the Live Action video, go to: https://www.metacafe.com/watch/2113345/indiana_planned_parenthood_covers_up_sexual_abuse_of_13_year_old/)

Immediately following the video’s release, Planned Parenthood of Indiana issued a statement acknowledging they had suspended the employee in the video without pay.

“While we cannot be certain whether this video has been altered, the apparent actions of the employee would be in violation of our strict policies and procedures,” said President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana Betty Cockrum. “Therefore, a thorough internal investigation of this matter has begun.”

Rose said that the recent footage is “only a sample” from many hours of footage she collected in the undercover audit over the summer, called The Mona Lisa Project.

“The Mona Lisa Project demonstrates how quickly the abortion industry’s disrespect for unborn children becomes disregard for all humans,” Rose explained. “Planned Parenthood offers no solutions for the victim of statutory rape – they give her an abortion and a bag of condoms and send her straight back into the arms of the abuser.”