The student-led nonprofit, Live Action, has provided the full, unedited footage from a recent investigation of a Tucson Planned Parenthood clinic to the offices of the Arizona Attorney General and the Pima County Attorney. The tapes show Planned Parenthood covering up a reported case of sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl, and were made public last week on Live Action’s website, http://www.liveaction.org .
In the footage, a Tucson Planned Parenthood counselor tells a Live Action investigator, posing as a pregnant 15-year-old, how to hide her sexual relationship with a 27-year-old man. The counselor, identified in the video as "Araceli," cautions the girl not to bring her 27-year-old "boyfriend" to the judicial hearing required to obtain an abortion without the consent of her parents.
Even while promising an "internal review," Planned Parenthood of Arizona has offered no public apology nor acknowledged any wrongdoing.
Past investigations of Planned Parenthood by Live Action have yielded similarly alarming results. Last December, Live Action released similar videos revealing sexual abuse cover-ups at Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana, prompting state officials to initiate investigations into practices at Planned Parenthood of Indiana. Facing a public scandal, Planned Parenthood fired an employee in Bloomington and soon after suspended another in Indianapolis.
Lila Rose, a 20-year-old undergraduate at UCLA and president of Live Action, has asked Arizona state authorities to follow the lead of Indiana prosecutors.
Rose stated, "Planned Parenthood’s repeated claims of ‘internal review’ are woefully insufficient, especially since this organization has a record of violating state laws that protect young girls. Arizona authorities must thoroughly investigate the illicit behavior at Planned Parenthood clinics." She added, "We must not forget that young girls are at serious risk. Planned Parenthood’s disregard for mandatory reporting laws is prolonging sexual relationships between victimized minors and predatory adult males."
Live Action has also launched an interactive online map that displays recorded cases of violations at Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation. The interactive map can be viewed at liveaction.org/violations.
