Planned Parenthood staffer ‘no longer employed’

The Planned Parenthood employee involved in an online video that went viral Dec. 3 is no longer employed by the organization, Planned Parenthood announced Wednesday.

The video shows a 20-year-old UCLA student, who went undercover as a 13-year-old, going into the Bloomington Planned Parenthood clinic. She said she was impregnated by a 31-year-old man and asked for help. The Planned Parenthood employee, identified as “Diana” in the video, is seen telling the teen to cross state lines to get an abortion that doesn’t require parental consent.

After the video was released on Dec. 4, the employee was suspended without pay and is no longer working for the organization.

Since then, Planned Parenthood of Indiana conducted an internal investigation of the incident.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana sent out a press release Wednesday stating their
investigation was complete.

“All health center staff members have been retrained on reporting procedures and policies,” said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. “We will continue to review and update our policies and procedures as appropriate to ensure that all of our employees are meeting the high standards we demand.”

Cockrum said in the press release the video appeared to be edited from the original format, but the actions of the employee were still “unacceptable.”

In the video, the employee tells the teen she is supposed to report the incident to Child Protective Services but would pretend she did not hear the age of the man who impregnated her.

The UCLA student was undercover with a student investigative organization called Live Action Films, and Planned Parenthood was not aware that they were being videotaped.

The video was filmed in June at the 421 S. College Ave. location but was not released until Dec. 4.

Lila Rose, the UCLA student in the video, said the group chose the Bloomington location because it was in a college town and because of the strict regulations Indiana has to protect young girls.

The Bloomington video was part of Live Action Films’ “Mona Lisa Project,” a series of videos that the group hopes will expose Planned Parenthood.

Rose said she is not happy with the result of the video.

“Planned Parenthood is blaming the cover-up on a single woman, and that’s wrong,” Rose said. “I think they need to be convicted for their many abuses.”

Steve Vaughn, director of the Indiana Department of Child Services, said last week the department did not plan to do anything to Planned Parenthood since there was not an actual minor involved in the incident.

Rose said she wants attorney generals in states where videos have been released to further investigate Planned Parenthood. She said she would like to see Planned Parenthood convicted and have their government funding taken away.

“The Mona Lisa Project is ... meant to illustrate the wide-spread problem,” Rose said. “For them to not recognize that it’s their ideology, they need to be convicted as an organization.”