Victory and Genevieve Patterson (yeah, I know — what story can’t be good that starts out with names like those?) are suing the Northside Women’s Clinic for allegedly performing an abortion on their daughter Renée without their consent.
Georgia, of course, requires parental notification and consent before abortions are performed on minors “unless there is a medical emergency involved or a judicial waiver is obtained.”
According to LifeNews.com:
The complaint, filed in the Fulton County Superior Court, says their daughter Renee Wymer discovered her then-boyfriend got her pregnant in April 2007. The couple kept the pregnancy a secret and discussed moving to Maryland and getting married or putting the baby up for adoption.
When the boyfriend’s mother found out about the pregnancy, she urged Renee to get an abortion and told her son to search the Internet for an abortion center.
The Pattersons say the Northside Women’s Clinic put false information on its web site that misleads teenagers about the law. They contend Northside’s web site said “unmarried patients under the age of 18 are required by Georgia law to have a parental notification note on the day of surgery.”
The boyfriend’s mother wrote the note and took Renee to Northside for the abortion.
In their lawsuit, Renee’s parents say the web site was misleading because the state law clearly requires a legal parent or guardian to accompany the minor for the abortion, not an unrelated adult.
Personally, it looks like they’re focusing on the wrong thing here. The website can say whatever it wants (does anybody really think the phrase “a parental notification note” means any parent in the world — not one related to the subject of the procedure — can provide this note? Really?); the fact is, it’s up to the employees of the clinic to follow the law, which clearly requires (a) 24-hour parental notification, and (b) consent of the subject’s parents.
Forget what the website said (and leave aside the macro debate over abortion “rights” and whether or not parental consent, which is required for every other medical procedure on earth, is an “unnecessary burden” or not); if the Northside Clinic actually accepted the note of consent from a parent who was not related to, or guardian of, the girl involved, and performed the procedure on that same day, then they violated two elements of the parental notification statute — period — and should be found liable, both legally and civilly, for doing so. End of story.
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Well
Yeah
The good news for the Northside Women’s Clinic is that, thanks to tort reform, damages are capped at a low level and their exposure on the claim is minimal.
I do agree with the parental notification law. And I hope as a parent I would never have to face this difficult situation with my children
My only question is why would a parent thrust the daughter into a lawsuit over this very private matter? If I did anything it would have been done very discreetly and I would not want my daughter involved in any public drama for money with this situation. My main focus would be on helping my teenager with any issues via this dramatic situation.
BlogDawg,
Let us not forget how this suit will screw the doctor. The Tort Reform law in GA that passed just years ago allows the clinc to separate the doctor from their institution…which would place the liability solely on the doctor.
This, my fellow Georgian’s, is why you do not let the GOP write tort reform legislation. They wanted to screw the lawyers…and inevitably the Democratic donor base, but due to their inadequacies as legislators they actually screwed the lawyers, doctors and patients of GA. The sole benefactors: insurance companies.
Is there a charity I can donate to fund secret abortions for the teenage daughters of pro-life wack jobs?
I’ll take the checks.
It is kind of a secret philanthropy but just send the checks my way, I’ll make sure they get delivered.
My address is:
123 Fake Street
Atlanta, GA
30469-6969
The Farris for 10 PR campaign would like to clarify that Chris was using “wack jobs” in a positive manner. I hope this clarifies his statement.
And by wack job, I mean anyone who place abortion in the top 5 issues facing society today.
I’m gonna make you work for your consulting fees Konop!
The Farris for ’1o PR campaign would like to clarify that Chris was in fact calling half of Georgia (if not more), whack jobs.
We hope this clarifies his statement and if it doesn’t; get stuffed.
chris i think the idea that these are prolife whack jobs railing against the man is a bit ambitious–these are just peeps taking advantage of a situation–they just wants to get paid…”my lawyer got me 250k for my daughters secret abortion!!!”..you should give him a call right now…
I don’t think they should perform abortions on minors unless there’s a good reason. For example, if they’re screaming and yelling in a restaurant or grocery store.
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