I wholeheartedly support Planned Parenthood, which is why I’m so disappointed they’ve threatened to sue Lila Rose.
The first-year political science student, posing as a 15-year-old statutory rape victim at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Los Angeles, caught on tape a Planned Parenthood employee advising her to lie about her age to protect her fictitious 23-year-old boyfriend. Rose’s story made headlines because Planned Parenthood threatened her with a lawsuit unless she relinquished the tape to them.
Although Planned Parenthood has every right to threaten to sue Rose, they do not have the right to ignore what she discovered.
I am not supporting Rose’s actions, which were a blatant violation of the law. The California Invasion of Privacy Act makes it illegal to record a confidential conversation ““ which is defined as a conversation in which the participants have a reasonable expectation that it is not being overheard or recorded ““ without acquiring the consent of both parties. Violators are subject to both civil penalties (fines) and criminal penalties (jail time).
As Rose told me over the phone, “It’s not about me getting sued; it’s about the people at risk.” I could not agree more.
By not immediately calling the authorities and reporting the statutory rape, as Planned Parenthood employees are required to do by law, the employee was complicit in what she believed to be the rape of a child. And this single employee could represent a much more widespread problem in all of Planned Parenthood’s employees.
For example, a teenage girl in Lebanon, Ohio, filed a suit against Planned Parenthood claiming that she told employees at a Planned Parenthood clinic that her father was molesting her and they failed to report it to authorities.
Similar to Rose’s case, Life Dynamics, a radical pro-life organization based in Texas, supposedly conducted an investigation in which a woman posing as a 13-year-old girl impregnated by a 22-year-old man called Planned Parenthood clinics around the country. Audio tapes on the Life Dynamics web site have numerous recordings of who they claim are Planned Parenthood employees advising the girl to lie about her age to protect her boyfriend.
The accuracy of these claims are in dispute. But they do represent a growing public suspicion of Planned Parenthood’s ability to give fair and accurate information to young women, which is bad news for the organization.
Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood officials do not seem to be taking this seriously enough.
Kathy Kneer, President of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, told the Daily Bruin that Planned Parenthood “took immediate action” against the employees who violated their policies.
But when I called Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles to ask what those immediate actions were, I was told that someone would call me back if they found out. I also attempted to contact Kneer, but was told that she will not be back in her office until later in the week, and there was no one else there to answer my question.
Many people, like Kneer, tended to focus more on Rose’s agenda than what she found. I understand why they would bristle at unflattering accusations, but the best way to respond would be by reassuring the public.
Tell us you’re going to conduct an investigation to make sure this is not happening elsewhere. Pose as a victim of statutory rape and call your own employees to make sure they’re following the law. Instead, Kneer attempted to refocus the attention on Rose’s actions, and tell the Daily Bruin that the student is “misguided” and “has an agenda.”
An agenda is something that Rose, an outspoken pro-life activist, obviously has. But attempting to simply pass this incident off as a result of one student’s pro-life agenda is cowardly and troublesome.
Planned Parenthood is an incredibly important organization for millions of men and women across the country, especially those living at lower income levels who would not otherwise have access to comprehensive reproductive care.
But if Planned Parenthood continues to act so flippant in responding to reports that their employees are violating the law and endangering children, it could lose public support and funding. This would only hurt those the organization exists to serve.
Rose told me that she plans on continuing conducting investigative work in the future. Hopefully Planned Parenthood will take more proactive steps to ensure that activists like Rose have nothing more to find.
Disappointed by PPLA’s reaction? E-mail Strickland at kstrickland@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.