Phi Kappa Psi has faced some serious accusations. In October, Rolling Stone magazine published a student’s account of being gang-raped on broken glass at the fraternity’s UVA chapter.
Identified only as “Jackie,” the woman said she was lured to a party before being slammed through a table, punched, and then raped for three hours by seven men–one of whom penetrated her with a beer bottle. Jackie claimed that after the ordeal was over, she was advised to stay quiet about it.
The report generated an uproar, with protests on campus and vandals damaging Phi Kappa Psi’s building. The story is certainly horrifying, but Rolling Stone did leave out one detail:
There was no proof it actually happened.
Although Jackie described a savage level of violence, she didn’t seek medical attention. And, while Rolling Stone chose not to contact the alleged perpetrators, the Washington Post did, uncovering evidence that seems to corroborate the fraternity’s denial. That prompted an announcement from Rolling Stone stating, “In the face of new information reported by the Washington Post and other news outlets, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account,” and, “We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening.” lf the men of Phi Kappa Psi are innocent, then I suspect they’ll want more than an apology.
Of course, none of this changes the fact that sexual violence is both a real and heinous crime. But despite loud condemnation of “rape culture” and “rape’s enablers,” the outrage is selective. For unlike Phi Kappa Psi, there’s plenty of evidence that Planned Parenthood has helped to cover-up rape. Unfortunately, it’s seen few consequences.
Rapists need secrecy, so getting a victim pregnant can be a major problem. Friends, family, and partners are bound to ask about a baby bump, and there’s no telling what kind of answers they’re going to get. Even more questions tend to come up when a girl is underage.
Gary Cross almost had to deal with that scenario after impregnating his thirteen year-old step-daughter, something he failed to notice until she was twenty-two weeks along. Planned Parenthood was able to lend a hand, though: they set up a late-term abortion and then said nothing to authorities. As a result, Cross was able to keep victimizing for another seven months.
Fellow child rapists Timothy Smith, Adam Gault, and John Blanks, Jr. were also enabled by Planned Parenthood. Denise Fairbanks claimed in a lawsuit that she told Planned Parenthood clinic staff about being brought in by her incestuous father. While clinic staff performed an abortion, they made no effort to report the abuse.
Alleged Arizona serial rapist Tyler Kost was apparently helped without even knowing it. When one of his alleged victims became pregnant, she went to Planned Parenthood for an abortion. According to her, clinic staff said that reporting the crime would involve too much paperwork. After Kost was arrested, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office stated that an investigation could have started months earlier if Planned Parenthood had bothered to file a report.
These cases aren’t anomalies. The group Life Dynamics recorded hundreds of calls to Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation clinics from an actress purporting to be fourteen years old and impregnated by her adult boyfriend. Close to eight hundred times, staff were willing to arrange a secret abortion and protect the man’s identify.
Life Dynamics isn’t alone in recording this phenomenon–Live Action has produced undercover videos capturing the same mentality. This includes footage of a Planned Parenthood worker who, when approached by a girl claiming to be fourteen, tells her to lie about her thirty one year-old boyfriend’s age in order to get an abortion. In another video, an employee offers to arrange abortions on child prostitutes who “can’t speak English” and “won’t know what’s going on.”
Finally, all of this is congruent with what former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson and six other ex-employees had to say. In an open letter to Congress, the former Planned Parenthood workers asserted that the organization has failed to protect victims of abuse.
You can help address that problem by contacting your member of Congress and asking for an investigation into how Planned Parenthood handles sexual violence. You can also sign Live Action’s petition calling on Congress to end the half billion in federal funding that the organization receives.
As the evidence shows, rape enablement is a reality in the abortion industry. If you’d like to oppose it, then going after Planned Parenthood would be a great start.
