Thirteen South Side ministers and an anti-abortion group filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday seeking a court order to bar a health clinic in Du Sable High School from distributing birth-control devices.
The suit charged the Chicago Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Public Aid and Du Sable Principal Judith Steinhagen with failing to consult parents on the clinic`s operation; failing to warn students of the dangers of using birth control; failing to teach an alternative to birth control, as required by state law; destroying family values; and violating students`
privacy with questions asked them before treatment.
”The clinic program is a calculated, pernicious effort to destroy the very fabric of family life among black parents and their children,” the suit charged. ”It is designed to control black population and is sponsored by the very governmental agency which is charged with the responsibility of teaching and promoting family-life values.”
A parental consent form authorizing the clinic to provide health services does not tell parents or students that they have the right to consent to services such as emergency treatment, physical examinations and immunizations without also consenting to pregnancy testing or family planning, the suit charges.
The suit charged that the consent form Du Sable uses does not tell parents or students that they have the right to consent to services such as emergency treatment, physical examinations and immunizations without also consenting to pregnancy testing or family planning.
Steinhagen said the parental consent form asked parents to give ”blanket permission” for their youngsters to receive a number of health services from the clinic, including physical examinations, nutrition counseling, emergency treatment, immunizations and family planning services.
”If a parent did not want any one service (for the child), they did not sign the form,” Steinhagen said.
When the school board approved opening a second clinic for Orr High School, the form was altered to list each service.
Parents were able to exclude any services, including family planning, for their children.
The suit charges that the form fails to warn parents and students that oral contraceptives pose possible health risks, including blood clots, eye trouble and strokes.
The suit said students` privacy is violated with questions asking them whether they were having sex; have ever been pregnant; the quality of their relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend; use marijuana, cocaine or heroin; and get along with their parents.
The clinic ”promotes destruction of marriage, responsibility of fatherhood and motherhood and family” contrary to the public policy of Illinois, and is illegally promoting particular religious beliefs and practices, the suit said.
Camilo Volini, attorney for the ministers and the Pro-Life Pro-Family Coalition, said the suit does not seek to block operation of other clinics, such as the one at Orr, but he said he expects the suit to be expanded within a month to include the Orr clinic.
”This clinic is a conspiracy against blacks because not one board of education clinic is operated in a predominantly white school,” said Rev. Hiram Crawford, a plaintiff.
”The parents were never informed about their consent rights, the questions being asked of students or the general operation of the clinic,”
said Crawford. ”Also, the pregnancy figures for students at Du Sable have been greatly inflated.”
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In the original debate over whether to establish the clinic, proponents cited statistics showing that 300 of Du Sable`s 1,000 female students became pregnant in the 1984-85 school year.
Steinhagen, however, said that 300 girls living in the Du Sable attendance area were pregnant during 1984-85, but not all may have been students at the high school.
In the clinic`s first year, beginning July 1, 1985, it served 50 pregnant girls from the high school. Steinhagen said other Du Sable students might have been pregnant during the 1985-86 school year who did not come to the clinic for health services.
”When these students develop health problems, who is going to take care of them?” Rev. Crawford said. ”Clinics like these have not decreased the number of teenage pregnancies.”
Dr. Carl Turner, a plaintiff who is both a physician and an assistant pastor, said teenage pregnancies are ”not something that should be remedied by the schools. It is beyond their jurisdiction. The family, Chicago Board of Health and physicians need to be brought into the problem.”
The Illinois Department of Public Aid is named as a defendant because it provides funding for the clinics.