|
Source: WorldnetDaily; March 15, 2003
Ashcroft Urged to Investigate Planned Parenthood
Coverup
Washington, DC -- An legal petition addressed to the Justice Department
accuses Planned Parenthood-sponsored abortion facilities of hiding
sexual abuse of children under the guise of a teen-age girl's purported
right to privacy.
The petition - to be sent to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
- cites a number of local cases brought against Planned Parenthood,
including a judgment by an Arizona court for failing to report the
sexual abuse of minors as required by law.
The abortion businesses are "encouraging child sexual abuse, winking
at statutory rape and concealing pedophiles," wrote Richard Ackerman,
litigation counsel for the United States Justice Foundation.
Ackerman said Planned Parenthood is "displaying an arrogance beyond
everything I've ever seen," seeking to "silence any opposition through
legal intimidation." The San Diego lawyer said the group threatened
him with state bar disciplinary action and a $20,000 financial punishment
for presenting evidence of the abortion businesses' wrongdoing.
"Planned Parenthood's attorney promised to bankrupt me or anyone
who dares to challenge their policy," he said.
The petition refers to a study last year which demonstrated that
Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation "knowingly
conceal" the crimes of sexual abuse of minors "while aiding and
abetting the sexual predators who commit them."
A researcher impersonating a 13-year-old girl made pregnant by a
22-year-old boyfriend - told the facilities that she wanted an abortion
"because she and her boyfriend did not want her parents to find
out about the sexual relationship." In 91% of their calls,
the person they reached at the center agreed to conceal the statutory
rape.
Ackerman notes that the inspector for the California Health &
Human Services Department issued a July, 2, 2002, report stating
that Planned Parenthood "failed to ensure that there was a policy
and procedure to ensure compliance with the legal requirements relative
to the treatment of minors."
One week after the report was issued, said Ackerman, a Planned Parenthood
attorney appeared with him on national television, claiming that
the organization abides by all laws governing the treatment of minors.
Shortly before that appearance, however, Ackerman continued, Planned
Parenthood adopted a written policy that "[c]larified that we are
not legally obligated to ask [a] partner's age."
"In other words," Ackerman said, "Planned Parenthood doesn't care
about finding out who's raping America's children."
In his letter to Ashcroft and Thompson, Ackerman wrote, "One can
only hope your office cares more about protecting the physical safety
of our nation's children than in protecting molesters and those
who refuse to assist local prosecutors in identifying sexual predators
and bringing them to justice."
|
