This morning, on National Public Radio, I heard a news story about an abandoned infant found in a recycling yard in Iowa. The infant had been put through a shredder and it was difficult to even determine what sex the child was. Turns out it was a boy who was a full-term newborn. In addition, it is undetermined who the mother is. So, the D.A.s office decides to check with Planned Parenthood and requests all records of women who had a positive pregnancy test about the time that this child should have been conceived. Planned Parenthood, of course, refuses because of confidentiality of these 100s of women. So now there is this huge debate and the president of the Iowa Planned Parenthood may be jailed.
So, my thoughts on this are, what is the likelihood that this girl even went to Planned Parenthood? Are we going to risk the confidentiality of hundreds of women for the possibility that this girl, who abandoned her baby, actually went to planned parenthood to get tested? In my opinion, the more likely scenario is that the girl probably did a home pregnancy test. In fact, it is possible that this pregnancy was a complete secret from everyone. Maybe this was a teen girl who was scared and kept it a secret from everyone. Then, hundreds of women are going to have their records investigated and their privacy invaded.
It would be different if they had something to go on, but they are basicly searching for a needle in a haystack. What are they going to do once they have all these records? Go door to door and find out if there is a live baby to match the positive pregnancy test? Interogate anyone who cannot present a live baby?