Right to life activists are claiming that clinics encourage pedopiles, and put up audio to "prove" it. Unfortunately, taping a receptionist telling a caller that her birth control is "strictly confidential" doesn't prove anything except that Planned Parenthood is obeying the law. It also proves that the Right to Life organization is wasting taxpayer dollars and the legislature's time in order to pursue a change pushed by out of state interest groups and that only affects a fraction of young women seeking abortion in the state.
The right to life people say that Planned Parenthood is encouraging sexual predators by protecting patient confidentiality. In fact, they are obeying HIPAA.
The acronym HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA is the law that brought us health care reform by allowing employees to maintain insurance coverage between jobs, prohibiting denial of coverage for preexisting conditions, and creating medical savings accounts. HIPAA also increased funding for fraud and abuse enforcement. Finally, HIPAA set forth new rules for 1) processing electronic transactions such as billing and eligibility verification, 2) protecting the security of health information, and 3) ensuring the privacy of health information.
Under HIPAA, health care providers must not notify the parents without the consent of the minor.
The health information of minors will be treated like any other health information except for the following special rules:
* As provided in West Virginia law, both parents of a child will have equal access to the child�s records, except as limited by court order or other West Virginia law. The parent objecting to a release of records to the other parent has the duty to provide us with a court order prohibiting the release.
* As provided in West Virginia law, records of the diagnosis, treatment or counseling of a minor for drug or alcohol abuse or addiction will not be released to parents or guardians without the consent of the minor.
* As provided in West Virginia law, records of the diagnosis, testing or treatment of a minor for a sexually transmitted disease will not be released to parents or guardians without the consent of the minor.
* As provided in West Virginia law, records involving the use of birth control by a minor, or of prenatal care rendered to a minor, will not be released to parents or guardians without the consent of the minor.
So why is a Texas organization calling clinics around the country, and trying to use the taped phone conversations as "proof"?
The state House of delegates will not take up the parental notification abortion bill. Supporters of the bill held a closed door meeting yesterday with house leadership and today the leadership said it would not take up the bill, but would consider it if it comes from the state senate.
Monongalia County state senator Mike Oliverio supports the bill and says so do a lot of other senators.
Marion County state senator Roman Prezioso introduced the bill and it will have to be passed by Wednesday, which is the deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin.
The bill would eliminate what supporters say is a loophole in the current parental notification law that allows pregnant girls in certain situations to bypass their parents permission for an abortion through a physician's waiver. It would instead require a judicial waiver.
The most recent information available shows there were 19 physician waivers in West Virginia in the last year.
H. B. 2112
(By Delegates Blair and Sumner)
[Introduced January 11, 2006; referred to the
Committee on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §16-2F-3 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to requiring a physician to receive written consent from at least one parent or legal guardian before an abortion is performed on an unemancipated minor; and providing a criminal penalty for failure to comply.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §16-2F-3 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2F. PARENTAL CONSENT AND NOTIFICATION OF ABORTIONS PERFORMED ON UNEMANCIPATED MINORS.
§16-2F-3. Parental consent and notification of at least one parent or guardian for abortions performed on unemancipated minors; waiver; notice to minor of right of petition to circuit court; minor to be referred for counseling; penalty
(a) No physician may perform an abortion upon an unemancipated minor unlesssuchthe physician has written consent from at least one of the parents or legal guardians, and has given or caused to be given at least twenty-four hours actual notice to one of the parents or to the legal guardian of the pregnant minor of his intention to perform the abortion, or, if the parent or guardian cannot be found and notified after a reasonable effort to do so, without first having given at least forty-eight hours constructive notice computed from the time of mailing to the parent or to the legal guardian of the minor: Provided, That prior to giving the notification required by this section, the physician shall advise the unemancipated minor of the right of petition to the circuit court for waiver of consent and notification: Provided, however, That any such consent and notification may be waived by a duly acknowledged writing signed by a parent or the guardian of the minor.
(b) Upon notification being given to any parent or to the legal guardian ofsucha pregnant minor, the physician shall refersuchthe pregnant minor to a counselor or caseworker of any church or school or of the department of human services or of any other comparable agency for the purpose of arranging or accompanyingsuchthe pregnant minor in consultation with her parents.SuchThe counselor shall thereafter be authorized to monitor the circumstances and the continued relationship of and between such minor and her parents.
(c) Parental consent and notification required by subsection (a) of this section may be waived by a physician, other than the physician who is to perform the abortion, if such other physician finds that the minor is mature enough to make the abortion decision independently or that consent and notification would not be in the minor's best interest: Provided, That such other physician shall not be associated professionally or financially with the physician proposing to perform the abortion.
(d) Any physician that fails to receive written consent from at least one parent or legal guardian, or fails to provide notification to at least one parent or legal guardian as required by this section, before performing an abortion on an unemancipated minor, except in cases where these requirements are properly waived pursuant to this section, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require a physician to receive written consent from at least one parent or legal guardian before an abortion is performed on an unemancipated minor; and provides for a penalty.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.