Planned Parenthood warns of prank phone calls

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Anti-abortion activists' prank phone calls pledging to underwrite abortions for blacks are an attempt to portray Planned Parenthood as racist, a spokeswoman for the health care provider said.

The calls to Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio, Idaho, Oklahoma and New Mexico were made with the help of students at the University of California, Los Angeles, and audio recordings have been posted on YouTube.com.

In one of the postings, a caller to a Columbus clinic asks a receptionist if he can make a donation that will be used to underwrite abortions on minorities because there are "definitely way too many black people in Ohio."

"OK, whatever," the receptionist replies.

Stephanie Tresso, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Columbus, didn't dispute that the staffer indicated such a contribution would be accepted but said the call was just another attempt by anti-abortion activists to discredit the organization.

Audio of the call has been edited to exclude the receptionist's comments that the contribution would be used for black women or any woman in need, Tresso said.

"It was quite an unprofessional call that she received, and she struggled with how to address it," Tresso said. "She filed an incident report and notified her supervisor, which she was supposed to do. Her supervisor then notified other Planned Parenthoods, and we realized that this was happening all over the country and it was an organized effort."

UCLA sophomore Lila Rose, one of the students involved in the anti-abortion campaign, defended the phone calls and said the conversations show the willingness of Planned Parenthood to go along with racist requests.

"They could have hung up, they could have disagreed, they could have said 'No, we don't discriminate,' but not a single clinic did that, and that's disturbing and shocking," she said.

Rose denied that the conversations posted on YouTube were taken out of context.

Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio has given staff members additional training about handling such callers, Tresso said. She didn't elaborate.

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican who ran for governor in 2006 and lost, said he learned about the phone calls and YouTube videos during a recent meeting with anti-abortion activists in Washington.

Blackwell, who is black, wrote House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio asking for a congressional investigation. Planned Parenthood affiliates in the U.S. receive more than $300 million in government grants and contracts, according to the group's Web site.

Boehner spokeswoman Jessica Towhey said Saturday she didn't think the congressman had seen Blackwell's letter.

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Democrat from Cleveland who is black, said Planned Parenthood's family planning and health care services have provided a vital need for the black community.

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com