Live Action, a California-based anti-abortion group, attacked Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Wednesday by releasing an undercover video showing a clinic staff member at the Milwaukee facility allegedly taking illegal action during an appointment.
The edited four-minute video shows a conversation between a Planned Parenthood employee and an actor portraying a 14-year-old seeking an abortion. The conversation alludes to statutory rape by the girl's 31-year-old boyfriend and the possibility of her receiving an abortion without parental consent.
""Planned Parenthood has proven time and again there is a continued pattern of covering up sexual abuse,"" Virginia Zignego, communications director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, said in a statement. ""In Wisconsin, sex between an adult and a minor under age 16 is a felony and must be reported to law enforcement.""
Planned Parenthood said there were complications in reporting the case, according to Milwaukee-based television station TMJ4.
""In this particular circumstance, we did not have the name of the young woman,"" Teri Huyck, CEO of Wisconsin Planned Parenthood, said to TMJ4. ""She did not give it to us, did not provide any form of ID, so we were unable to make a report.""
Lila Rose, a University of California-Los Angeles senior and president of Live Action, posed as the 14-year-old in the video, which she shot in the summer of 2008 with the help of a friend.
Rose called Huyck's statement ""a lie.""
""We released some extended footage [Wednesday] where we give the full name,"" Rose said. ""We say, ‘I'm Janelle Merriam, my birthday is 7/27, I'm 14.' The Planned Parenthood CEO said yesterday that we did not give that information … That was a false representation.""
Rose said Live Action is planning to release the full footage to the public after they send the video to the attorney general and district attorney's offices.
Live Action targeted nine other Planned Parenthood facilities throughout the country that summer. One of their videos was filmed at a Planned Parenthood in Appleton and was broadcast to the public in December 2009.
Regarding the Appleton incident, Huyck said in a statement that ""an anti-abortion organization that secretly videotapes inside health centers has made false and inflammatory claims about our services. The fact is Planned Parenthood's standard is to provide honest, medically accurate information.""
