For those of us who are parents, the release forms for school activities are a ubiquitous part of life. Usually, they make good sense, as we want to make sure that our children get medical treatment quickly when circumstances make parental notification first too complicated for prompt attention. In Seattle, a high school used such a release to procure an abortion for a 15-year-old student, and her parents are outraged. KOMO reported earlier this week on the story:

When she signed a consent form, Jill figured it meant her 15 year old could go to the Ballard Teen Health Center located inside the high school for an earache, a sports physical, even birth control, but not for help terminating a pregnancy.

“She took a pregnancy test at school at the teen health center,” she said. “Nowhere in this paperwork does it mention abortion or facilitating abortion.”

Jill says her daughter, a pro-life advocate, was given a pass, put in a taxi and sent off to have an abortion during school hours all without her family knowing.

“We had no idea this was being facilitated on campus,” said Jill. “They just told her that if she concealed it from her family, that it would be free of charge and no financial responsibility.”

The video report mentions that the mother is pro-choice, not pro-life, which makes the story even stranger. I’d question how they got a 15-year-old pro-life advocate to agree to the abortion, except I have a pretty damned good idea, having lived through a not-dissimilar situation with my daughter-in-law and son during their senior year. I’d bet dollars to donuts that they pressured a frightened and confused adolescent into that decision just when she needed her parents most.

At the end, the clinic’s management tries to use the excuse that they can’t list every ailment on a consent form. However, if they’re going to procure abortions for 15-year-olds, then perhaps they can mention those. That falls pretty far outside the realm of scraped knees, broken fingers, and headaches, after all.