‘Don’t tell your parents’ — school health center arranges abortion
April 15, 2010 by Carol WarnerPosted in: Special Report
This school health center helped a student get an abortion during school hours — without telling her parents first. How did this parental-notification failure happen?
(The student’s name has been withheld to protect her privacy. Her mother has only been identified as “Jill” by KOMO News.)
The 15-year-old girl attends Ballard High School in Seattle.
At the beginning of the school year, Jill signed a permission slip that gave the school’s on-campus Teen Health Center the OK to treat her daughter.
Jill said she assumed that meant Ballard’s Teen Health Center might treat her daughter for headaches, earaches and such.
She realized the center’s staff might even spell out birth control options. Jill didn’t expect school health center staffers to put her daughter in a taxi and send her to have an abortion during school hours without being informed of the decision.
But that’s exactly what happened!
“[My daughter] took a pregnancy test at school at the teen health center,” Jill said. “Nowhere in this paperwork does it mention abortion or facilitating [an] abortion.
“We had no idea this was being facilitated on campus,” she continued. “They just told her that if she concealed it from her family, that it would be free of charge. [It] makes me feel like my rights [as a mother] were completely stripped away.”
The school heath center’s response
The Seattle School District pointed out that it doesn’t run the on-campus health clinic. It noted that the Swedish Medical Center runs the Teen Health Center inside the school. And the Swedish Medical Center says it protects students’ privacy.
Under Washington state law, an individual of any age “can consent to a termination of pregnancy,” according to T.J. Cosgrove of the King County Health Department, which administers the school-based programs for the health department.
The tricky gray area
Setting aside the obvious political and ethical arguments surrounding abortion, another big issue in this case is parental notification.
The recent alleged laptop spying incident in Pennsylvania proves that parents can get into litigious moods when they aren’t informed about what’s happening with their children.
Truth is, today’s technology makes communicating with parents easier than ever. Schools have myriad options, such as Web sites, phones, e-mails and text messages.
The school’s Web site lists services offered at the Teen Health Center. It mentions “birth control” and “confidential family planning,” but it doesn’t specifically spell out abortion. Neither does the electronic permission slip. Was “abortion” omitted intentionally?
Maybe, especially since the girl was allegedly told not to tell her parents so the abortion would be free.
Considering all of the tech options available for communicating with parents, do you think this school dropped the ball? Chime in below.
Tags: abortion, Ballard High School, parent notification, student health, Teen health center
‘Don’t tell your parents’ — school health center arranges abortion
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