Foes Dive for Discarded Records in Abortion Clinic Dumpsters

[marmar]

from ProPublica:



This story was co-published with NPR's Shots blog.


The scene in front of abortion clinics is often tense, with clinic workers escorting patients past activists waving signs and taking photographs.

But increasingly, another drama is unfolding out back. There, abortion opponents dig through the trash in search of patient information.

Using garbage as their ammunition, anti-abortion activists – who have sometimes been accused of violating abortion seekers’ privacy – are turning the tables. They claim it’s the clinics that are violating patients’ privacy by discarding medical records in unsecured ways.

“Everybody acts like the abortion clinics are this bastion of protection for women’s privacy, and they’re like the chief offenders of just dumping this stuff willy-nilly,” said Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy advisor at Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group based in Wichita, Kansas. “It’s so hypocritical.”

Abortion rights groups counter that while a small number of clinics have improperly disposed of records, the vast majority take strict precautions to protect patient privacy. It’s far more common, they say, for abortion opponents to trespass on private property or try to break into locked dumpsters. .....................(more)

http://www.propublica.org/article/foes-dive-for-discarded-records-in-abortion-clinic-dumpsters

[Syzygy321]

1. What's hypocritical is digging through

dumpsters for the express purpose of finding private medical information,

and claiming it's someone *else* who's not respecting patient confidentiality.

Having said that: let's all donate what we can to NARAL and PP today, to ensure they have shredders and can afford proper disposal of paperwork.

[Renew Deal]

2. They're both wrong

Medical records for all types of patients must be protected or destroyed.

[NuclearDem]

3. Why are these records not being shredded?

[CTyankee]

4. they sure were when I worked for PP.

Everything was shredded. Everything. We weren't allowed to throw out any papers at all. Maybe a pizza box or plastic wrap from our sandwiches...

This is all protocol that is strict.