L.A. School District Partnering With Planned Parenthood in School Clinics
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Notorious abortion purveyor Planned Parenthood is partnering with the Los Angeles public school district to place school-based “health” clinics in the city’s high schools, reported the Los Angeles Times. While birth rates in Los Angeles have been falling over the past several years, mirroring the drop statewide, there are still areas in the county where teen birth rates are high, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “The heavily Latino and low-income neighborhood around Roosevelt High School is one of them,” reported the Times, which is why the Los Angeles Unified School District has invited Planned Parenthood to set up shop there.

“Throughout the school year, students visit the on-campus clinic to get birth control, pregnancy tests, counseling, and screening for sexually transmitted diseases,” noted the Times. The service is free and “confidential,” the Times pointed out — meaning teen girls can visit the clinic for pregnancy testing and birth control without their parents ever finding out. That can happen, noted the pro-life website LifeNews.com, “because California is one of about 20 states that still do not have any type of parental involvement law on abortion.” The “collaboration” between the school and the abortion giant is “designed to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies among teenagers” at Roosevelt High School, reported the Times.

Because Planned Parenthood derives a significant portion of its profits from performing abortions, it is reasonable to assume that its motive for the “partnership” extends beyond merely providing birth control and counseling. The counseling its clinic provides could include referral for abortion. But to provide the full extent of its services, of course, requires strict confidentiality to assure that concerned parents of teen girls do not enter into the picture. “Nurse practitioner Sherry Medrano, who runs the Roosevelt health clinic, said teenagers rarely go outside their comfort zone for family planning,” reported the LA Times. “By law, students can go to Medrano and her staff without the permission of their parents. ‘They feel much safer and much more comfortable coming to a school-based health clinic,’ she said.”

The existence of such clinics, and the lack of involvement from parents, serves to encourage teens to continue in risky sexual behavior, knowing that there is a listening ear at their school ready to facilitate their sexual activity and help them deal with any unfortunate consequences — all without the knowledge of mom, dad, or legal guardian. The Times quoted one 16-year-old girl who said she “felt relieved to know that she could visit the clinic without telling her mother. ‘Just knowing you can come somewhere to get birth control just feels good,’ she said. ‘It’s a relief.’ ”

LifeNews noted that under the ObamaCare socialized medical scheme now being implemented, Planned Parenthood can be expected to target more schools across the nation for its school-based “health” clinics. The pro-life news site quoted Matthew Clark of the American Center for Law and Justice, who explained that abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood will be able to tap into federal grants to open clinics in both middle schools and high schools. “While the law prevents these clinics from being used to ‘provide’ abortions,” wrote Clark, “it encourages groups like Planned Parenthood to make abortion referrals. The law’s stated purpose for these clinics is to provide ‘counseling’ and ‘referrals,’ which could include abortions and abortion related services.”

Even before passage of the ObamaCare bill, Dallas-based journalist Victor Medina warned of such a contingency, writing in a 2009 op-ed that the “broad wording outlining the qualifications for government funds and access to schoolchildren could open the door for groups like Planned Parenthood to operate the clinics in schools with no oversight and full federal government support.” He added that the clinics “would be funded by federal grants awarded by the Obama administration, which has made it clear that they expect Planned Parenthood to play an active role in their proposed health care system.”

Photo: Theodore Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles