Anti-abortion group says undercover video shows clinics in Tucson, Phoenix broke the law
Reporter: Craig Smith
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Anti abortion activists say they've caught abortion clinics in Tucson and Phoenix breaking the law and they have video to prove it.
A group called Live Action says it caught clinic staffs agreeing to schedule abortions for women who said they wanted them because of the sex of their babies.
Arizona is one of three states that have laws against abortions to end a pregnancy if you don't like the race or sex of the child.
An anti abortion group called Live Action says it has undercover video of a worker here, and one in Phoenix, scheduling abortions for women who said they wanted an abortion because they didn't want a girl.
At a clinic in Phoenix the woman tells a worker she wants to be pregnant, but not with a girl. The worker says she should not have said so
Woman: "So I just shouldn't say that anymore?"
Worker: "Yeah, don't say that."
Woman: "Why?"
Worker: "Because state law says we cannot do a termination just because of race and gender."
The video shows the worker telling the woman to sign a statement saying she is not aborting because of gender.
At the clinic in Tucson, when the worker hears the woman wants an abortion to avoid having a girl he says this:
Worker: "We can't do your abortion then. We cannot terminate an abortion on sex. We could lose our licence."
The woman takes back what she said---sort of...
Woman: "I mean, I just won't mention it. I didn't even tell you so it's fine."
Worker: "Yeah. I'll just forget about it."
More than 40 pages of disclosure and information documents from the Tucson clinic website do include a place for the patient to promise gender and race have nothing to do with a woman's desire to end her pregnancy.
We asked both clinics for comment.
The Phoenix clinic told us no comment. The Tucson clinic didn't even say that and we found it closed when we went there.
We asked the organization releasing the videos if they're edited fairly.
KGUN9 reporter Craig Smith asked Live Action Communications Director Kate Bryan: "If we saw videos you did not choose to release would we in some cases see clinics living up to these laws and telling the patients to please go away?"
Kate Bryan: "In every clinic they wanted to...every clinic that we visited, they wanted to go along with sex selective abortion."
For an attorney's take on this we talked with Amy Hernandez of Picarretta and Davis.
She says it's a real gray area if someone says they want an abortion based on the baby's gender, then says they've changed their mind and signs that legal promise saying gender has nothing to do with it.
Breaking this law is a criminal violation. For a criminal charge to stick the doctor must know, not just the office staff.
If someone files a civil suit there could be liability even if the staff did not tell the doctor.
The group Live Action says it has filed a criminal complaint with the state Attorney General in the last day or so. That office is looking for the status of the complaint now.
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