RICHMOND, VA, March 21, 2014, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Virginia Department of Health has twice ignored a freedom of information request regarding the failure of the Roanoke Medical Center for Women to report underage abortions.
The Family Foundation of Virginia has formally filed a petition with the Richmond Circuit Court “to receive documents from the Department of Health that it has thus far refused to turn over after a FOIA request.”
According to the Family Foundation, the Department of Health inspection report from February 25, 2013 disclosed cases where minors received abortions at the Roanoke Medical Center for Women without parental consent, a crime in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
However, it appears the Department of Health has yet to take action in investigating these occurrences and reporting them to the proper authorities.
Virginia Code § 63.2-1509 mandates that if anyone licensed to practice medicine “ha[s] reason to suspect that a child is an abused or neglected child, [they] shall report the matter immediately to the local department of the county or city wherein the child resides or wherein the abuse or neglect is believed to have occurred.”
Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation, said that “until evidence to the contrary is presented by the Department of Health, one can only conclude that the abortion center not only violated the state’s parental consent law, which is documented, but additionally that the Department of Health failed to fulfill its responsibility to report possible child sexual abuse.”
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The Family Foundation submitted its first Freedom of Information Act request on January 31, 2014, asking for proof that the Department of Health had reported these instances to the proper authorities or to Social Services, but were told that they did “not have any documents that are responsive.”
Another FOIA request was submitted 14 days later. Thus far, silence has been their only response.
Cobb asked, “If there is a reasonable explanation for not fulfilling state laws regarding mandatory reporting of child abuse, the citizens of Virginia deserve to know what that is. If the law was followed, why not say so?”
Such evading tactics are not uncommon in the abortion industry.
Former Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter fought a long legal battle with Planned Parenthood over the disclosure of minors’ clinic records. The lawsuit was eventually settled in Planned Parenthood’s favor.
In 2012, Ontario passed a law blocking abortion data from being released, even with a freedom of information request.
Last year in Indiana, Dr. Ulrich Klopfer failed to report a 13-year-old’s abortion on time, as required by law. By December, over 600 formal complaints were filed against Klopfer, all concerning improper and inaccurate reporting of abortions he conducted.
By the end of the year, Klopfer was forced to go on a “hiatus” as a result of him not having admitting privileges at the local hospital. He was eventually criminally charged for not reporting the underage abortion on time.
Klopfer’s failure to report the underage abortion is one of many such instances in the state of Indiana. A recent investigation shows that over half of abortions performed on underage teens in the state are not reported on time, in accordance with state law.
According to Cobb, these instances are “further evidence that the abortion industry is completely incapable of policing itself and needs oversight by non-politicized government health officials.”
“Is the abortion industry so protected by the state that it is allowed to ignore mandatory reporting laws?” Cobb asked.