In a letter to the editor in yesterday's Washington Times, Alabama Physician's Resource Council Director Dianna Lightfoot blasts Kaiser Permanente's move to stop referrals to Oakland, CA-based First Resort Inc.
Lightfoot blames the California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League's "unsubstantiated accusations" that First Resort provided biased counseling to pregnant women, charging that CARAL "threw verbal fits and placed intimidating calls to Kaiser after discovering that the HMO dared to offer women the opportunity to make a choice other than abortion."
She argues that "Kaiser caved in to a politically correct abortion rights group while ignoring the honest efforts of First Resort," and asserts that "Planned Parenthood -- with its baskets of brochures about the difficulties of parenthood and history of being the biggest abortion provider in the nation -- is by far the more manipulative in its message."
She concludes, "Shame on CARAL for blocking a woman's right to make her own decision about pregnancy counseling" (Lightfoot, Washington Times, 2/3/99).