ANCHORAGE — The parents of a teenage girl are suing a social worker and the Anchorage Alaska Catholic hospital she works for who, the parents say, helped the girl get an out-of-state abortion two years ago. The suit names the Sisters of Providence, doing business as Providence Health System Alaska and Providence Family Practice Center.
The suit alleges that the social worker, with the collusion of hospital officials, helped the girl to go to Seattle, at public expense, for an abortion, without informing her parents. Alaska state law requires parental consent for a minor to procure an abortion.
“Whether you agree or disagree with parental consent or parental notification, this isn't the right way,” said attorney Yale Metzger, who is representing the family.
A hospital spokesman said that, though the hospital does not commit abortions, they have no problems referring women elsewhere to procure one. Far from denying the charge, Karina Jennings said, “We believe we followed good, sound, medical practice in this case.”
The suit records that the girl went to see the staff social worker at the hospital in the company of her boyfriend and his mother. The social worker’s notes said that she was feeling scared about being pregnant at 15, and that she was advised to return alone to be counseled in “pregnancy options.” The social worker arranged to have her and her boyfriend flown to Seattle while her parents, frantic about her whereabouts, called the police.
Their daughter returned home the next day. The parents and the girl are asking for unspecified damages for emotional distress.
This is not the first time Providence Hospital has come under fire for abortion related scandals. In September 2004, it was revealed that Providence was doing early inducement of labor on critically disabled children, a practice tantamount to abortion in Catholic medical ethics.
Despite the clear opposition to Catholic ethics of early inducement, the website of the archdiocese of Anchorage denied that Providence Hospital had done anything wrong. The archdiocesan webpage has, linked to its front page, the following: “Alaska Right to Life has yet to produce any credible evidence of its claims that Providence, a Catholic hospital, performs abortion.”
See also:
Contact Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz
225 Cordova St
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
(907) 297-7700
Contact Providence Hospital
3200 Providence Drive
Anchorage, Alaska 99508
(907) 562-2211
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
