ObamaCare & Planned Parenthood: Joined at the Hip

Under ObamaCare, Planned Parenthood will indeed be running health care clinics inside public schools

By Bryan Fischer

Here at the American Family Association, we have received many inquiries in response to our Action Alert and press release warning Americans that under ObamaCare, Planned Parenthood will be authorized to run health clinics that are based inside public schools.

Here's how. In Section 2511 (pages 993-1001) of H.R. 3200, the House version of health care reform legislation, provision is made for "School-Based Health Clinics" (SBHCs for short). Under the provisions of this section, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is directed to "establish a school-based health clinic program" which will locate clinics "in, or...adjacent to a school facility" a clinic which is "administered by a sponsoring facility."

Who can qualify as a "sponsoring facility?" A "sponsoring facility" can be "a hospital, a public health department, a community health center," or — and this is where Planned Parenthood comes in — "a nonprofit health care agency."

A quick visit to Planned Parenthood's website (www.plannedparenthood.org) reveals that Planned Parenthood is in fact a "not-for-profit" 501(c)(3) organization which proudly boasts of operating "850 health centers" throughout the United States.

Under H.R. 3200, each one of these "health centers" is eligible to become a "sponsoring facility" of a school-based health clinic.

Given the pro-abortion inclinations of President Obama and the promises he has made to Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby, and the radically pro-abortion convictions of current Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, a fervent supporter of notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller, we can soon expect to see "school-based health clinics" on school grounds operated at taxpayer expense by Planned Parenthood.

Yes, these will operate at taxpayer expense, as the bill expressly says that "funds awarded under a grant under this section" may be used for "the payment of salaries for health professionals and other appropriate SBHC personnel."

Worse, although the bulk of H.R. 3200 is not scheduled to go into effect until 2013, the Secretary of HHS is directed to "begin awarding grants" for these SBHCs "not later than July 1, 2010."

In other words, by this time next year, your child's school may well be hosting a clinic run by the nation's largest abortion provider and leading purveyor of the "safe sex" message that has compromised the sexual innocence of countless thousands of America's youth, and left them with unwanted pregnancies and bodies riddled with sexually-transmitted diseases.

Because each SBHC is directed to follow all laws governing "patient privacy and student records," parents will never know what kind of counsel and medical treatment their child has received by the time he gets home from school.

(It's true that the bill directs SBHCs to follow laws governing "obtaining parental or guardian consent," but the undercover investigations of Lila Rose and others have revealed that Planned Parenthood staff routinely evade their legal obligation to follow parental consent laws and to report suspected cases of statutory rape. Planned Parenthood simply cannot be trusted to follow parental involvement laws.)

Since the "sponsoring facility" — e.g. Planned Parenthood — "assumes all responsibility for the SBHC administration, operations and oversight," there will be no accountability to the school principal, school boards or to parents. Their only accountability will be to local Planned Parenthood staff and ultimately to a government bureaucrat — the Secretary of Health & Human Services — who believes it's okay to stick a fork in an unborn baby's head and suck out its brains before crushing its skull with forceps.

Putting Planned Parenthood in charge of a school's health clinic is like putting ACORN in charge of the Electoral College or putting Rod Blagojevich in charge of the Federal Reserve. Not a good idea now or ever. Once again we say it is time for America's families to rise up as one and say a flat "No" to the president's plan to take over all of America's health care.