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Clinic Sued For 15-Year-Old's Abortion Trip

Clinic Sued For Teen Abortion

Catholic social worker helped 15-year-old to get abortion; parents didn't know about her pregnancy

A social worker at a clinic connected with Providence Alaska Medical Center led a 15-year-old girl to seek an abortion, then arranged for her to obtain it in Seattle at government expense, all without her parents' knowledge or approval, a lawsuit filed last month alleges. Her boyfriend, 17, went with her.

The parents only found out when they became frantic because their daughter didn't come home one night in March 2003, according to the suit filed by Anchorage attorney Yale Metzger on behalf of the girl and her parents. An older daughter who knew about the abortion told them where she was, the suit says.

The suit names as defendants Sisters of Providence, doing business as Providence Health System Alaska and Providence Family Practice Center, as well as the social worker at the center.

The Daily News is not naming the plaintiffs because of the sensitive nature of the matter and the girl's age. She is now 17.

The unusual court case provides a look at how a young teenager can get an abortion without her parents' knowledge. It was filed March 3, just before the issue returned to public view. Alaska's Legislature passed a law in 1997 requiring that girls under 17 get approval either from their parents or a judge, but it has never taken effect because of court challenges. On April 13, the Alaska Supreme Court heard the latest round of arguments over whether the law should stand.

The girl in the lawsuit regrets her decision to have an abortion, Metzger said. "Whether you agree or disagree with parental consent or parental notification, this isn't the right way," he said. She and her parents are seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress.

Providence, as a Catholic institution, doesn't perform abortions but will refer patients to where they can get one, said spokeswoman Karina Jennings.

A staff member may bring up the option of an abortion if a patient indicates the pregnancy is unwanted, she said. It's a difficult area for workers whose role is to help the patient but who still must follow Catholic ethical and religious teachings, Jennings said.

"We believe we followed good sound medical practice in this case," Jennings said. She wouldn't discuss specifics.

Here's what happened, according to allegations in the lawsuit and information provided by Metzger:

In early March 2003, the girl was 15 weeks pregnant and hadn't told her parents. Her boyfriend's mother asked her whether she was pregnant, and she acknowledged she was. She told the woman she wanted to have the baby and knew her parents would not want her to have an abortion, Metzger said.

On March 4, 2003, the girl, her boyfriend and his mother went to Providence Family Practice Center for prenatal care and to ask about services such as health coverage and a nutrition program, the lawsuit said.

They met with the social worker, who suggested the girl return alone later in the day.

Clinic records obtained by Metzger on behalf of the girl include notes from the social worker that the patient was feeling scared about her pregnancy and felt she was too young to have a child, the attorney said. It was at that point that the social worker counseled the girl on "pregnancy options," he said.

Because she was past the first trimester, she needed to go Outside for an abortion, the attorney said.

The social worker and the girl together scheduled an abortion at the Cedar River Clinic in Renton, outside Seattle, operated by the Feminist Women's Health Center, Metzger said.

The social worker also arranged for the travel and the abortion to be covered by Denali KidCare, the state-run insurance program that covers low- and middle-income children and pregnant women, he said.

Originally, an 18-year-old friend was going to accompany the girl, but the trip was delayed by a windstorm that March and ultimately, her 17-year-old boyfriend went with her instead, at the state's expense through Denali KidCare, Metzger said.

She had the abortion on March 20 and came home the next day, he said.

Her parents called police in their search for their daughter. Once they found out about the abortion, they went to the Anchorage airport in case she hadn't already left, Metzger said.

The family is Laotian, and the parents struggle with English, he said, so the experience was especially frightening and frustrating. The parents would have helped the girl raise the child if she had decided to have the baby, he said.

Under state policy, minors traveling for state-paid health care are supposed to be accompanied by a parent, guardian or designee, and it's always supposed to be an adult, Sherry Hill, special assistant in the Department of Health and Social Services, wrote in an e-mail to the Daily News. That may conflict with the court rulings on minors and abortion, she noted.

The girl's situation is not typical, said Anna Franks, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Alaska. The organization has challenged the state parental consent law as a violation of the privacy and equal rights of pregnant teens.

Most women who get abortions are 18 or older. Most abortions are done early, in the first trimester, so patients can be close to home, which is cheaper, she said.

"Wouldn't it have been nice for her to have gotten a safe, affordable procedure in Alaska?" Franks asked.

Most girls already tell their parents, according to a 1991 national study and Alaska abortion providers. Of those who don't, about one-third are in abusive families and may be afraid, according to testimony to the state Legislature in 1997.

Thirty-two states already require parent involvement, and all but one of those provide for girls to go to court if they can't go to their parents, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a national reproductive health research and policy organization. In 12 other states, including Alaska, such laws are on hold because of court rulings.

Critics of the laws argue that girls may be too intimidated to appear before a judge. The result might be illegal or delayed abortions, which are more dangerous. Or girls might travel to states where no parent approval is required. A bill that passed the U.S. House on Wednesday seeks to stop girls from getting secret abortions that way.

The cost of a state-paid abortion varies from $320 to $880, not counting travel expenses, according to Jeff Kasper, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Social Services. The state spent about $513,000 on abortions in the 2004 budget year.

Last calendar year in Alaska, 154 girls age 17 or younger had an abortion, and about 45 percent were covered by Medicaid or Denali KidCare, according to the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics. That's out of 1,937 abortions in Alaska during the same year.

Under a 2001 state Supreme Court ruling, the state can't refuse to pay for medically necessary abortions, as long as it also pays for prenatal care and childbirth, Franks said.

About 78 percent of Alaskans support a law that would require at least one parent to give consent before a teen under 17 had an abortion, according to a March poll by Dittman Research Corp. done for the Legislature.


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Posted by Editor at April 30, 2005 10:00 AM