Earlier this year, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed two bills. The first, HB 4787, makes it a felony to stalk or assault a woman for the purpose of forcing her to abort. Under the second, HB 4380, withholding legally required financial aid or employment is a misdemeanor.
Coerced abortions aren’t rare: some studies indicate more than half of abortions are consented to under pressure, and women can face violence when they resist. Women have been shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, burned and smothered for refusing to have one, which is part of why the CDC lists homicide as a leading cause of death during pregnancy.
Given those facts, you might be wondering, “Why would anyone oppose this legislation?” Ask Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion chain, and it wasn’t a fan of either bill. I’m not surprised Planned Parenthood would fight laws to protect vulnerable women and girls. For years, Planned Parenthood has helped the men who prey on them.
It certainly helped John Blanks, Jr. when he brought his daughter, Denise Fairbanks, to Planned Parenthood after he got her pregnant. In her lawsuit, Fairbanks recalled explicitly telling facility staff she’d been raped and was now being forced to abort. Rather than call the police, they turned her back over to him when they were done. Planned Parenthood opted to settle.
They settled with Timothy Smith’s victim, too. Smith brought the 13 year-old to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains after he raped her. Colorado’s Office of Children, Youth, & Families says it’s a sign of abuse if a child under 14 “becomes pregnant or contracts a venereal disease,” but Planned Parenthood staff weren’t concerned. One later admitted that “being thirteen and pregnant alone is not a red flag” there.
The victims of Edgar Ramirez, Gary Cross, Luis Gonzalez-Jose, Andrew King, John Haller, Adam Gault, and Grey David Woods didn’t get much concern either. And it’s not just amateur abusers that Planned Parenthood will assist: Live Action has shown it’ll help professionals as well. When two volunteers posing as pimps visited a New Jersey Planned Parenthood center, its director offered to arrange abortions on child prostitutes who “can’t speak English” and “won’t know what’s going on.” “If they’re 14 and under,” she explained, “just send them right there if they need an abortion, OK?”
If you don’t think child abusers and human traffickers deserve a hand, then contact your representatives and demand anti-coercion laws. You can also tell Congress that Planned Parenthood’s half billion dollars annually in federal funding should go to federally qualified health centers and community health centers instead. Finally, you can support pregnancy care centers–places where women can get material and emotional support, along with information about adoption and parenting.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood still claims to be “pro-woman.” Helping abusive men makes that tough to believe.
Author’s Note: If you are being pressured to have an abortion, go here to find out where to get help.
