AIW will keep telling the truth about Abortionists and the Abortion Industry. And we don't care who doesn't like it.

Exclusive: Planned Parenthood Tacoma Sued for Medical Malpractice

Attorney unable to find co-counsel willing to go up against "Mob-like" giant

The two things you expect Planned Parenthood to be good at, diagnosing unplanned pregnancies so they can be targeted for abortion, and administering birth control, are the subject of a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by a Tacoma woman in December of 2012.

The woman, whom we will call SJ in this report -- but who is identified in the lawsuit of course -- was given Depo Provera birth control injections during the course of a pregnancy, a pregnancy that PP failed to identify despite claiming to have administered two high-sensitivity pregnancy tests. She only found out she was pregnant at 6.5 months, and claims a series of emotional and physical health problems not only to herself, but also to her baby. The lawsuit also points out that PP has had her on Depo for 10 years, even though the manufacturer recommends 2 years maximum.

In the complaint, SJ states:

    "My child's delivery was a terrifying experience. After my daughter was delivered, I began to pass blood clots. The doctors could not stop the passing and could not determine its source. I had to be transported to the operating room and the doctors had to operate on me to stop the bleeding. I lost large amounts of blood and had to have a blood transfusion. 

     My life is forever altered as a direct result of [Planned Parenthood Tacoma]'s actions. I have been affected financially, emotionally, and physically. Many things in life are painful that were never painful before as a result of being on Depo-Provera for ten years. I have joint pain, muscle pain, and experience symptoms associated with bone weakness. If I ever want to be intimate with someone again without experiencing extreme pain, I will have to seek therapy to relax my permanently-contracted pelvic floor muscles. My relationships with family and friends were forever altered by [Planned Parenthood]'s failure to diagnose my pregnancy. I trusted [Planned Parenthood] to assist me in my family planning goals and I was sorely mislead and disappointed."

She went to Planned Parenthood Tacoma's clinic in June, 2011, in order to get put (back) on Depo Provera birth control, which is administered as an injection every three months. She was reportedly given a "high-sensitivity" pregnancy test which came back negative, although it turns out she was just over 1 month pregnant at the time. She was given the Depo injection.

Three months later she returned for the next injection, in September, 2011. She asked for a pregnancy test. She was told this was standard policy. She gave a urine sample, and waited for 45 minutes for the results. In her declaration, she claims:

"[The nurse] assured me that the pregnancy test had come back negative." 

Then she was given another Depo injection. She specifically asked about a host of pregnancy symptoms, and repeatedly expressed concern that she might be pregnant, but was assured by the PP nurse that her symptoms were side-effects of the contraceptive.

It wasn't until November when the woman did a series of home pregnancy tests that she found out she was pregnant. All of the tests came back positive. She was 6 months pregnant at this point.

Planned Parenthood has claimed that they were not required to provide a pregnancy test at the second, September visit. They have studiously managed to avoid explaining why the nurse told SJ that there was a negative pregnancy test result, leading to another Depo injection, when no test was actually done.

"Nobody Wanted to Touch It."
SJ had to go all the way to Everett to find an attorney who would take on Planned Parenthood. When we spoke with her attorney, Jenna Labourr of Labourr Law, Ms. Labourr told us that she had originally tried to find someone to co-counsel with her on the case. "But nobody wanted to touch it. Nobody wanted to touch it. Nobody wanted to go up against Planned Parenthood."

She added that at first, when they heard about the client and her situation, other attorneys initially expressed interest and willingness to help. But once she revealed who the defendant was, they all started backing out. She wasn't naive going into this, but noted that the response from other attorneys was "kind of a shock to me," because it was not an ideological case. Some have compared this phenomenon to the going up against The Mob.

Ms. Labourr said she took this case, which argues that Planned Parenthood is guilty of Medical Malpractice, Negligence, and "Lost Chance" -- not Wrongful Birth -- because Planned Parenthood was recklessly endangering this woman's body with their incompetence and indifference.

"I'm an activist for women's rights," Ms. Labourr told us. "I've never been a fan of Planned Parenthood. I've never sent women there. They don't care about their patients." Indeed, she has been involved in activism against sexual trafficking, serving on the staff of Human Rights Society, and has worked with Hope for Justice. She has done work helping victims of domestic violence, and even went to a law school that was originally founded as a law school for women. Normally Planned Parenthood seeks to destroy people who try to hold them accountable, smearing them as being "anti-woman". Good luck with that.

We asked Planned Parenthood why it is that nearly all the lawyers in Western Washington are scared of them, and if it was because of anything illegal. They declined to comment or respond to any of our inquiries. Ms. Labourr expressed concern about the health and safety of women going to get services from Planned Parenthood if they don't have any legal recourse in the event that PP causes them permanent harm, because they can't even find a lawyer.

"Definitely Stacked"
Planned Parenthood didn't spare any expense and hired Rebecca Ringer, of Floyd, Pflueger and Ringer, an Ivy League trained attorney, known for successfully defending Big Health Care against claims from the battered and bruised.

Ms. Labourr knew she was taking on a giant with this case. She observed that PP used their seemingly bottomless reservoir of cash to file spurious motions and subpoenas, to mislead the judge with legal red herrings, trying to compel discovery of records they don't need, all to get her exhausted or to run out of funds.

Ms. Labourr said PP's attorney even "provided false information to the Court."

"They're not bound by any morality or even honor," explained Ms. Labourr. "They are ruthless, and will stop at nothing."

Ringer did not return our phone calls or emails requesting comment by press time.

Last month the Pierce County judge in the case granted Planned Parenthood's motion to dismiss the case. Ms. Labourr took it as a given that many judges in this state are in the pocket of Planned Parenthood, though she didn't accuse them of taking bribes. She was hoping that being in Pierce County -- and not King -- she might have a better chance of finding a fair judge.

But she observed that Judge Garold E. Johnson "had made up his mind before we got there. He wasn't willing to consider anything additional."

He decided, despite case law, that Ms. Labouur needed to provide input from a medical expert, but refused to give her 30 days to come up with one. He bent over backwards to accommodate Planned Parenthood's concerns and let them keep coming back to amend their complaint. "It was definitely stacked."

Ms. Labourr did win a motion to reconsider, and was going to file an appeal, but her client is exhausted and feels like there is no hope for justice against Planned Parenthood in this state. Score another round for Planned Parenthood in their War on Women.

Abortionists Gone Wild: How the Obama Administration tried to Shut Down This Blog

It's time to write about the rest of the story when putative late-term abortionist Julie Komarow, M.D., sought a restraining order on your humble correspondent, one of the writers for this blog. This story includes a run-in with armed U.S. Marshals and a threat of federal charges including fines and jail time.

We have reported on the fact that Dr. Komarow went berserk simply because we tried to interview her for a story. As serious and diligent journalists, we never want to accuse anyone of anything without verifying it first, and that means making every reasonable effort to contact individuals one is writing about to give them a chance to comment, including deny, what you are saying about them. In our view, three separate attempts via separate communication channels (land-line, cell phone, email) meets that standard.

This is what we did with Dr. Komarow. Yet for psycho-spiritual reasons that remain opaque to us, Julie Komarow elected to view our attempts to reach her as life-threatening harassment! That might be explainable, for how many of us really understand the internal workings of a mind that has rationlized decades of cold blooded murder of little babies at one's own hand -- but the drama and mystery was compounded by her circle of enablers that -- instead of challenging her delusions -- reinforced and encouraged them.

Some of these were colleagues, including pro-life evangelical Christian doctors. Some of them were police officers. And some of them were United States Marshals and the Department of Justice, including the ever-embattled Attorney General, Eric Holder.

When Komarow filed her first restraining order on us, it indicated that she had asked the King County Sheriff's office to open an investigation into this writer, and put the Bonney Lake police on the lookout for me. Moreover, it indicated she had contacted the U.S. Marshal's service and asked them to protect her and investigate me. Instead of laughing in her face and telling her that the Department of Justice come to the beck-and-call of mass murders, these law enforcement agencies went into service for this career-long abortionist as if they were the Blackwater of Baby Terrorists. They harassed me and my family in the process because of our attempts to protect innocent children. This was once the proud activity of the police.

The Restraining Order application includes, in Komarow's own handwriting:

"Mid-August: Federal Marshal Heather Stone Walker starts informal case."
"9/23: Marshal Stone starts official case." 

At the first court hearing, my attorney Alex Thomason quickly noticed that two of the women accompanying Komarow in the courtroom were conceal-carrying handguns. He immediately surmised that these were US Marshals. (Both were female, with short hair, and generally man-ish features.)

Indeed, later when the Judge asked Komarow to explain herself, after turning on the tears and claiming to be living in terror because a journalist wanted to interview her, one of the Marshals -- presumably Walker -- got up to speak to the judge on her behalf. This Marshal then declared that the Attorney General had instructed them to take this case "very seriously". She added that she had not just opened any investigation into me, but a federal F.A.C.E. Act investigation.

For those not familiar with the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrancies (F.A.C.E.) Act, this legal affrontery is one of Janet Reno and Bill Clinton's sad legacies. Ms. Reno became obsessed with destroying the lives of stay-at-home moms and grandmas who were trying to help save women and babies from the billion dollar abortion juggernaut. Not satisfied with the legal options available to her, she crafted and passed this bill which allows the federal government to punish pro-life activists with $10,000 fines and jail time if their actions can be shown to have physically blocked someone's access to an abortion mill.

So how, you are wondering, does Eric Holder convince some fine upstanding United States Marshals to pretend that two or three phone calls and a couple of emails soliciting an interview in order to avoid slander amounts to blockading an abortion clinic?

Every time you think you have plumbed the depths of the sick and twisted imaginings of the Obama Administration and its conspiracies of evil, you find out it is even sicker than you thought.

You also have to realize that Dr. Komarow didn't have to go pleading and begging and winding her way through the bureaucracy to make all this happen. The gun-toting authorities from the local cops up to the Department of Justice are apparently standing at the beckon-call of the baby-killing professionals.

It's worth pointing out that at no time did Heather Stone call me up and ask me any questions. At no time did she attempt to get my side of the story.

What did happen, however, was that we noticed that among the visitors to our blog after this point was "usdoj.gov". They would come back regularly for quite some time. One must assume that they were monitoring our writings, police-state-style, to see if they could come up with some way to show we had crossed some unknown line so they could give a knock on my door in the middle of the night. Can you say: Chilling Effect?

Welcome to the Democrat Nightmare. Brought to you by Low Information Voters across this land.

Exclusive: Bellingham Planned Parenthood Obstructed Child Rape Investigation, told Police they Knew they were Breaking Law

A couple of months ago there was news coverage of a story from Bellingham, Washington, in which the local Planned Parenthood (PP) abortion mill was accused of covering up the rape of an 10 year old Hispanic girl.

What no-one disputes is that PP Bellingham murdered this little girl's unborn baby.

But new police records obtained by this blog reveal a shocking discovery: when the Whatcom County Sheriff contacted the Bellingham Planned Parenthood in order to collect evidence in the child rape case, the abortion clinic representative told the police that they simply were going to break the law that required them to cooperate with the police.

The actual rape occurred in September 2012, when Luis Gonzalez-Jose, an illegal immigrant farm worker living in Everson, near Lynden, Washington, raped the then-11 year old daughter of the woman he was living with. The girl became pregnant and Mr. Gonzalez-Jose secretly took her to Planned Parenthood -- where presumably all child rapists go to "clean up" their crimes -- in nearby Bellingham to have the unborn baby killed. Mr. Gonzalez-Jose pretended to be the girl's father, and told her to claim that her "14-year-old boyfriend" got her pregnant.

In Washington, having sex with a girl under 12 is statutory rape (rape of a child in the first degree) if the male is not married to her (!) and is more than 2 years older. To the surprise of many, Planned Parenthood seems to have complied with this part of the law, and reported the case to Child Protective Services, because the purported age difference here, though fabricated, was still illegal.

But Planned Parenthood still did the abortion, despite knowing that this girl clearly was in no position to provide informed consent and was not accompanied by a documented parent! The fact that coercion was very probably involved apparently didn't slow them down one bit. (How often does a pregnant teenager come in for a voluntary abortion with just her father, and not her mother?) PP broke no Washington law by doing an abortion on a minor under coercion from her rapist, if you can believe that. And Attorney General Bob Ferguson loves it that way apparently.

While this much of the story has already gained some local publicity (and nationally in pro-life circles), what we can reveal for the first time is what happened when Deputy Alan Smith from the Whatcom County Sheriff’s office contacted PP in order to get a copy of their records in order to help prosecute the rapist.

The police record, authored by Deputy Smith, states the following:

"On the afternoon of 09 18 2012, I contacted Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood to obtain a copy of the records documenting 's treatment at their care (sic!) facility. I was referred to their records contact ... Sherry who told me Planned Parenthood would not follow the mandated reported (sic) law as codified in RCW 26.44.030.12(b) and refused (to) provide 's medical records. I then advised Planned Parenthood that I would seek a court order for their records on ." 

In other words, the woman working in the records department told the police officer that PP was going to knowingly and openly break the law, a law designed not to help prosecute them, but to help prosecute the perpetrator of a terrible sexual assault on a minor! In so doing she obstructed the investigation of a vicious crime. 

There are numerous questions that need to be answered here: 

• Was this a one-time event, or is this routine behavior? The record doesn’t show Sherry consulting with her superiors or an attorney, but immediately “implementing” this shocking policy on her own.
• Who told Sherry to talk to the police this way? (Note that if I was going to tell a police detective to take their law and shove it, I would probably not do it myself but rather tell them to talk to my supervisor or attorney. The fact that rank-and-file PP staff feel empowered to give the police the finger themselves raises all sorts of questions about how far and wide this goes.)
• Assuming this is PP policy, does it hold true for the entire state? The country? Is there any reason to believe that PP Bellingham is the only affiliate doing this? That they came up with this on their own?
• If they flout this law that they don't like, how many other laws do they ignore because they don't like them? Do they just pick and choose which laws they follow and which they do not? Are they completely above the law?
• Most people who openly break laws suffer consequences; why don't they? Who is protecting them? This woman seemed to act as if she had no fear of reprisal. And apparently she was right. Is there some arrangement or understanding between PP and “law enforcement”? We have made numerous repeated attempts to get Deputy Alan Smith to answer our questions about why PP suffered no consequences for breaking the law and obstructing justice but he has declined all offers to comment. 

There are even more unanswered questions in this story. PP apparently reported the statutory rape to CPS voluntarily when they might have gotten away with it. But then, after doing the coerced abortion, they decided to violate the mandatory cooperation law right to the face of the police as noted above.

And in a further twist, the abortionist, a Dr. Katherine Dickinson, apparently took the initiative and called the police to tell them she still had the aborted baby she killed sitting in her freezer at work. And rather than the police coming to arrest this woman who just admitted to the police that she murdered a baby in cold blood, the police came by and collected the literally cold blood for a DNA sample, and thanked the murderer for her cooperation!

On top of all this, we can't find evidence of a single pro-life politician in the state who wants to condemn the actions of PP or the police in this matter or call for changes.

Welcome to Washington State.

We will update you as we get more details.

Anti-Choice Event Coming-up

Hello Pro-Life Anti-Choicer,

We are ready for our May protest!  We will be protesting at the corner of 1st Ave NE and NE Northgate Way in Northgate from 10:00am-11:00am on Saturday, May 25th.   

I hope that you will be able to join us and help change the way people think about abortion.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Seattle Chapter
Anti-Choice Project
http://www.antichoiceproject.com/

More than 1,000 suits against NuvaRing may go to trial this fall

Sandra Fluke call your office.

The deadly side-effects of contraceptives and chemical abortifacients posing as contraceptives have been known for some time so why won't the people hawking this stuff warn women?

Contraceptive pills cause 20 deaths annually in France: Survey (This didn't hit the US mainstream press.)
Yasmin and Yaz side effects and deaths lawsuit
The dark side of Birth Control

And now they want us to pay for this poison.

As I told my doctor when he tried to sell me birth control, "No, those things'll kill ya."

Washington Woman Shares Abortion Testimony with National Audience

During my 5 years as Regional Coordinator for the Washington state Silent No More Awareness Campaign I met so many great post-abortive women. One of them was Nancy Murray. I recently reconnected with her and discovered that she has recetly shared her testimony in the Celebrate Life magazine. It's a beautiful story of mercy and forgiveness.

She is a writer in Richland, Washington and blogs at Catholic Ethics.

If you are hurting after an abortion there is hope. See Project Rachel or Silent No More Awareness Campaign.

If you live in Washington state it's not to late to join the next post-abortion healing retreat:

Hope and Healing After Abortion

Healing and hope are awaiting you on a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat™.
Next retreat: May 3-5, 2013

Call Valerie: 1-800-822-HOPE (4673)
You are loved with an everlasting Love!

Project Rachel is a program of Catholic Community Services.

The Big Lie: Reproductive "Parity" Bill. Planned Parenthood cares neither for parity or parity

That is they care neither for equality or childbearing. All they want is abortion.

At a public hearing on EHB 1044 on so-called "reproductive parity" yesterday, Jonathan Bloedow of AIW and Bloedow v. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest tells the Senate Health Care Committee that if Planned Parenthood wants all these abortions to take place, they can pay for them. They certainly have the funds and as the lawsuit shows they've been stealing from the taxpayers for years.

Karen Keiser, Planned Parenthood's reliable mouth-piece, tries to shut down Jonathan's testimony when it's clear he's going right to the heart of the problem -- PP CEO Christine Charbonneau and PPGW

There's lots of great testimony from the truely pro-parity side. Jonathan's testimony starts around 1:13:50.

Lawsuit Filed by Publisher of Abortion in Washington Finds Planned Parenthood Defrauded Taxpayers in Wash. state

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys file third lawsuit to expose abortion giant's mishandling of taxpayer dollars

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Attorney sound bite: Michael Norton

SEATTLE — Planned Parenthood submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursement” to the state of Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services, according to a federal lawsuit made public Tuesday. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed the lawsuit in July 2011 on behalf of Jonathan Bloedow, a Washington resident who discovered the alleged frauds through state open records requests.

“Americans deserve to know, especially in economic times like these, if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” said Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. Attorney. “Compliance with the law should not be sacrificed for the sake of Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. They have cheated the American taxpayer for too long. It’s time the abortion giant is held accountable.”

Federal law allows “whistleblowers” with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors. By law, such cases must initially be filed under seal and may not be made public while federal authorities decide whether to join the case.

Bloedow has sued under the federal False Claims Act. The suit alleges that Planned Parenthood submitted false claims to Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services and its Health and Recovery Services Administration. HRSA runs the state’s Title XIX Medicaid program.

The lawsuit alleges that Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest filed at least 25,000 false claims with HRSA for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for oral contraceptive pills and at least another 25,000 for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for “emergency contraceptive” (“Plan B”) pills under the federal government’s 340B drug reimbursement program. Total damages could be as much as $377,134,130.

The allegations of Bloedow’s complaint are consistent with a 2011 Government Accountability Office report that concluded that HRSA monitoring of the 340B program was inadequate and recommended that “HRSA take steps to strengthen oversight regarding program participation and compliance with program requirements.”

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed two prior False Claims Act lawsuits, Johnson v. Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas and Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. Bloedow v. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Allied Attorney Todd Nelson with Nelson Law Group in Seattle is co-counsel and is one of nearly 2,200 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom.

In 2012, Alliance Defending Freedom publicly released its report to Congress that identified nearly $100 million in waste, abuse, and potential fraud committed by Planned Parenthood affiliates and other providers. Seventy-two Members of Congress, led by Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee and Rep. Pete Olson of Texas, continue to press for the investigation of how Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest purveyor of abortions, has spent more than $2.3 billion of federal taxpayer dollars over the last few years.

• Pronunciation guide: Bloedow (BLAY’-dow)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith

Must Read: Rep. Steve O'Ban's Floor Speech on HB 1044

Right not to be Coerced to Take Human Life

Mr. Speaker, this bill is not about one’s views on regulating abortion or a women’s right to choose. This bill is about the value we place on the freedom of conscience. This bill is a test of all of us in this chamber. Do we nurture and celebrate people who follow their conscience? Or, do we burden and undermine conscience? And not just any issue of conscience is at stake.

This bill would force Americans to violate conscience on the most profound moral issue imaginable. This bill would force Americans to assist in taking what they believe to be innocent human life. Since the Quakers in colonial America were jailed for refusing to serve in colonial militias, our nation has affirmed the right of conscience. Their refusal to take life changed colonial laws and in every armed conflict since, Americans have been exempted for conscience sake. Our laws have responded to protect conscience, again and again.

• Within weeks of Roe v Wade in 1973, every state and the federal gov’t enacted exemptions so doctors would not be forced to take human life.
• Our state’s physician-assisted suicide laws, exempt physicians from being coerced to take human life. 
•  Our state corrections employees are excused from participating in state executions.

And yet, not since the Quakers were jailed in colonial America, would a law punish Americans who refuse to take human life, until HB 1044. No other state, no other gov’t has broken with the long tradition of our nation protecting conscience in this way, until HB 1044.

Washington State overwhelmingly supports parental-notification

HUMAN LIFE

______ of _____

W A S H I N G T O N

          

Jan. 22, 2013                                                      
For Interview Contact:  Peggy O’Ban, 425-789-8689

 

Washington State overwhelmingly supports parental-notification

 

(Bellevue, WA)  In a poll commissioned by Human Life WA, Washington State voters are widely supportive of laws concerning “parental involvement” in abortion decisions for girls under the age of 18 (62-29% with just under 10% undecided).  Further, strong support for this proposal outnumbers strong opposition by a margin of nearly three-to-one (48% strongly favor, 18% strongly oppose). 

A proposal requiring “parents be notified” before a girl under age 18 could have an abortion elicits even wider support – 65% favor, 25% oppose and 9% undecided.  Again, the intensity on this issue is on the support side (51% strongly favor, 17% strongly oppose). 

The survey was conducted January 10 & 12, 2013 by Moore Information, Inc .  It reveals that parental involvement and notification are supported by a majority of parents regardless of their views on abortion.

The issue has longstanding support in Washington State.  In 1995, Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, then chairman of the House Law and Justice Committee, co-sponsored a parental notification bill.  It went on to receive House approval but did not receive a hearing in the Senate.

 
This time parental notification will receive a public hearing in the Senate.

In a 1/22/2013 press release issued earlier today, Padden, now chairman of the Law and Justice Committee in the Senate--the committee to which SB 5156 on parental notification has been assigned--cites Human Life’s survey results and pledges the bill will have a public hearing.

Please see the attached for survey Power Point, including standard, scientific methodology.

 

—30—

For more information contact Peggy O’Ban at 425-789-8689 or email Dan Kennedy at dan@humanlife.net

Padden says committee will have hearing on abortion-notification bill

 For Release:                                    For Interview Contact:

Jan. 22, 2013                                   Sen. Mike Padden (360) 786-7606

 

Padden says committee will have hearing on abortion-notification bill

OLYMPIA… Sen. Mike Padden says the Senate Law and Justice Committee will have a public hearing on a bill that would require a girl’s parent or guardian to be notified before she can have an abortion.

Padden, R-Spokane Valley, is among the 18 sponsors of Senate Bill 5156, which was introduced Monday but is not yet scheduled for a hearing. He said it’s a proposal that has support from parents regardless of their views on abortion.

“If your daughter became pregnant and was considering an abortion, wouldn’t you want to know far enough ahead of time to talk with her about it or get ready to care for her afterward? This bill wouldn’t prohibit an underage girl from having an abortion, but it would make sure a parent or guardian has the chance to have that conversation, to provide that care,” Padden said.

Padden shared results from a recent statewide poll commissioned by Human Life of Washington, conducted by Moore Information. Of those responding, 65 percent were in favor when asked about a proposal along the lines of SB 5156, requiring “parents be notified” before a girl under age 18 could have an abortion; 25 percent were opposed and 9 percent were undecided. Padden said the “strongly favor” percentage greatly outweighed the “strongly oppose” group.

The measure that will come before Padden’s committee would require that one parent or guardian receive 48 hours’ actual notice from the person intending to provide the abortion.

“When you consider an underage girl can’t legally get a tattoo in our state, with or without a parent’s permission, yet can have access to an abortion without the parent even knowing, it puts things into perspective,” Padden said.

In 1995, as chairman of the law and justice committee in the House of Representatives, Padden co-sponsored and held a public hearing on a similar bill; it went on to receive House approval but did not receive a hearing in the Senate.

In 1998 the Senate approved a parental-notification bill; it also received committee approval in the House but was not brought to a full House vote.

 

—30—

For more information contact Eric Campbell at (360) 786-7037 or eric.campbell@leg.wa.gov