.- Some
feathers were ruffled at Planned Parenthood in South Dakota last week
when it came to light that the State Health Department website includes
links to the Alpha Center, a pro-life organization.
The Alpha Center
is a nonprofit agency that provides services to women and couples
involved in an unplanned pregnancy. It is included among links to
similar organizations providing alternatives for women considering
abortion, such as counseling and adoption, reported the Associated
Press. The Alpha Center has lobbied in favor of the state's abortion
ban.
Planned Parenthood state director Kate Looby told the AP that the links to pro-life groups, and to Alpha Center, were unfair.
However, a 2003
law requires a state website for abortion alternatives, making links to
the Alpha Center and similar organizations perfectly legal. In this
case, the law trumps a policy that forbids links to politically
involved organizations.
"The statute
specifically requires information be provided about alternatives to
abortion, not abortion services. For that reason, the Alpha Center is
included," Doneen Hollingsworth, state Health Department secretary,
told the AP.
In 2004,
Connecticut Gov. Mike Rounds asked the State Library board to remove a
link to a Planned Parenthood site from a State Library website for
teens, based on the policy that links to sites run by organizations
that politically involved are inappropriate. Rounds' request had
followed a letter from Bishop Robert Carlson, now former bishop of the
Diocese of Sioux Falls.
Link to pro-life group on government website ruffles feathers
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