COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Tuesday that an abortion clinic's medical records on other patients are relevant to a lawsuit brought by parents of a 14-year-old girl who had an abortion without their consent.

Lawyers for the girl's family argued that the information they seek is necessary to prove that Planned Parenthood of Cincinnati had a pattern of violating Ohio's parental consent law and failing to report abuse. The unusual case pits a single plaintiff against the privacy interests of a decade's worth of patients.

Planned Parenthood attorney Daniel Buckley says the clinic has a legal obligation to protect the privacy of its clients' records.

Charles Miller, an attorney for the parents, told the justices the plaintiffs seek only three facts about other minors treated at the clinic: the girl's age, whether she had a sexually transmitted disease, and whether she entered the clinic pregnant. He said about 200 cases a year would be involved.

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer questioned how any of those three details would advance the family's case for damages.

"Where's the linkage?" he asked.

The court did not indicate when it would rule.

The case involves a girl who was 14 at the time of her abortion in 2004, when the state's parental consent law had not been completely settled by the courts. She had been impregnated by her 21-year-old youth soccer coach, John Haller.

The family's lawsuit accuses the Planned Parenthood clinic of failing to get parental consent, report suspected abuse or to inform the girl of risks and alternatives. It seeks unspecified damages.

Court records say the girl gave Haller's cell phone number as her father's, and clinic officials thought they had reached the father when they called inquiring about parental consent. Haller was later convicted on seven counts of sexual battery.

An appeals court ruled last year that records on other patients weren't necessary for the family's lawsuit.

But family members believe they will find that Planned Parenthood routinely ignored signs that underage patients were sexually abused or statutorily raped by adults, Miller said.

Miller said the family hopes to show that Planned Parenthood's history of reporting virtually no suspected abuse cases defies statistics on teenage pregnancies caused by older men.

But Justice Paul Pfeifer wondered what value the records would have when they don't include the ages of the men involved. He noted that Ohio law requires neither the girl nor her parents to volunteer the identity of the father to employees of the clinic.

Buckley argued that the family already has all the access it needs to argue its case on behalf of the girl, including her own medical records, statements of the nurse, the doctor and the social worker.

He said the family is seeking unprecedented access to the medical records of third parties that will be of little use in the case. Federal courts, for example, ruled out using damages against third parties in an individual smoker's case against tobacco giant Philip Morris, he said.

He also said that Planned Parenthood denies underreporting or ignoring cases of abuse.

Abortion rights foes - including Jack Willke, former president of the National Right to Life Committee, Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values and Republican members of Ohio's congressional delegation - have lined up behind the family in the case.

Opposing the release of the records are the American Medical Association and a dozen associations representing domestic violence victims, obstetricians, gynecologists, pediatricians, psychologists and other medical professionals.

TBO.com - News From AP


All abortion providers need some level of external oversight. Cases like this should be reviewed and appropriate action taken. If a minor is pregnant, then the father should be identified if at all possible and abortion providers should have a legal responsibility of taking reasonable steps to notify the police any time a minor shows up pregnant. In the cases where the father is another minor, the father's parents should know that their son is sexaully active and has gotten someone pregnant. In the cases where the father is an adult, then criminal charges should be brought.

__________________
~
~
~

Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

The lawsuit is wrong...

This SHOULD be two different cases...

The first one is simple...The family of the 14 year-old should proceed without the records...That should stand alone...

Then, a SECOND "class action" lawsuit should be filed using the 14 year old's trial as evidence...THEN the records are relevant...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Hey. Good deal, Mr. D.A.!

And I noticed an organization that helps victims of abuse is against the release of paperwork. WTF?

__________________
Frugal tip: To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

How to Fold a Shirt

Salty's Blog

keep in mind there are 2 different agendas at work here...

1) logic...

2) political...(insert thumbsdown smilie)...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Told you we needed a hell no smilie.

__________________
Frugal tip: To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

How to Fold a Shirt

Salty's Blog