Public School Helps Girl Get Abortion
 

In an unbelievable case that should outrage parents across the country, a public high school in Washington State helped a 15-year-old student get an abortion during school hours without parental consent.

The teenage girl had taken a pregnancy test at the school’s health center, according to a local news report, and administrators subsequently arranged for her to get an abortion at a county-run clinic. The girl was given a pass during school hours, put in a taxi and sent off to a local facility that’s overseen by the King County Health Department in Seattle. It is not known what classes she missed or if she will be allowed to make up the work.

The girl’s mother says the only consent form she signed allowed her daughter to be treated at the school’s health center for ailments such as earaches and sports physicals but not for terminating a pregnancy. She assures that nowhere in the paperwork does it mention “abortion or facilitating abortion.”

Clinic officials told the girl that if she concealed the pregnancy from her family, the abortion would be free of charge and there would be no financial responsibility. The school (Ballard High) is the Seattle District which is the largest in Washington State with more than 45,000 students in 88 schools.

District officials claim they have no knowledge of what goes on in the high school clinics because the district doesn’t run them. The private company that operates the health facilities, Swedish Medical Center, protects students’ privacy and never divulges medical information, they say.

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Someone help me, what law was broken?

I pretty much stopped reading there. I'm just not a fan of advocacy journalism.

Ok...and I thought I was the only crazy one.

This happens more than you'd think.

Discretion is key.

As far as laws go, one would have to be versed in Washington law to answer that question... and whether the consent form could be construed to allow the school to assist in procuring abortions would require more info than we have.

I don't think we have have anybody on the Washington Bar here, so obviously we won't take what you say as Gospel. that being said, what is the law on this? Does a child require consent from the parents for an abortion or can they make that decision themselves?

ETA: So according to the full article, she didn't require consent for the abortion. In fact that only things that seems off is that she does require consent to miss classes.

No kidding. You don't say...

It's not an area I've dealt with ever. I don't have a Washington Westlaw subscription, so I'm not even going to hazard a guess.

Speechless, if true.

I find it odd/disturbing that they pushed her to hide it from her family. So was this a "public funded" abortion then?

What if there was some medical complication causing injury during the abortion (an elective procedure, not a medical emergency)? Who would answer for that?

Personally, I don't think that medical procedures should be performed on minors without a parent/guardian's consent, except in the case of emergency.

I can't believe the school district would open itself up to the liability in this case.

Legally in Washington State, she does not need consent.

I'd be really leery of trusting anything in this article. It might be true, it might not be -- but even if true, you can count on it being spun for maximum effect.

ETA: I found the same quote in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. That said, I find myself a little leery of trusting what the mother says (that presumably her daughter, whom the mother describes as a "pro-life advocate," told her) without hearing anything from the other side. Something doesn't sound quite right. I'm guessing that the mother never would have known if the daughter hadn't told her. Maybe it's just like the mother said, but I can't help but wonder if the daughter was feeling some major guilt and maybe described things in a way to deflect some of that guilt.

If that is the case, then she should have gone by herself, on her own time.

The school should not have provided her transportation or aided in her truancy. In fact, unless you are 18, you can't leave school property, for like a doctor's appt, without a parent/guardian physically coming to the school and getting you. At least that is the case here.

Very good point.


@MC

Can we use this as an actual news article?



A Seattle mother is irate after she said her 15-year-old daughter's school arranged an abortion for her daughter without her knowledge.
Mom says school helped assist in her daughter's abortion during school hours.

The mother, whose name has been withheld at her request to protect her privacy, told ABC News' Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV that the clinic gave her daughter a pass and helped her get a taxi that took her to a facility where she underwent an abortion.

The mother did not immediately return messages left by ABCNews.com. It was not immediately clear how far along in the pregnancy the teen was at the time of the abortion.

The mother said that she had signed a consent form that permitted her daughter to go to the teen health center on the campus of Ballard High School for what she believed were ailments like earaches, or for routine physicals, but not for an abortion.

"She took a pregnancy test at school at the teen health center," the mother told KOMO. "Nowhere in the paperwork does it mention abortion or facilitating abortion."

The form also allowed her daughter to receive birth control from the school's health clinic, the mother said.

But even so, the mother is furious that her daughter, who is on the school's honor roll, was given an abortion without the school notifying her parents.

"We had no idea this was being facilitated on campus," said the mother. "They just told her that if she concealed it from her family, that it would be free of charge and no financial responsibility."

A spokeswoman for the Seattle School District, which includes Ballard High School, declined to comment and referred all questions to the King County Health Department, the administrator of school-based health programs.

Or to even notify her parents, which is the case in many states.

Sounds like mom needs to have a talk with her daughter instead of the media.