Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in the U.S., continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding. Specifically, according to its latest annual report, the abortion giant received nearly $700 million in that year alone. Yet there are multitudes of reasons why Planned Parenthood should be defunded.
Planned Parenthood has been caught covering up the sexual abuse of children, with multiple victims testifying over a number of years as to how Planned Parenthood aborted their children and returned them to their abusers. Over 15 years ago, Live Action founder and president Lila Rose went undercover at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country, posing as a teen involved with a much older sexual partner.
“I don’t want to know the age”
In one video, from a facility in Bloomington, Indiana, a nurse admitted she was legally required to report statutory rape after Rose said she was 13 years old, as well as get permission from a parent. Rose was posing as a 13-year-old girl who had been impregnated by an adult.
“In the state of Indiana, you have to have a parent’s signature to get an abortion,” the staffer said, to which Rose responded, “And they would want to know who was the father and everything, and I can’t tell, and I wouldn’t want to tell them about all that stuff. Because, I mean, he would be in really big trouble.”
Rather than concern about Rose’s safety, the staffer brushed these red flags off, and said, “I don’t want to know how old he is. I don’t want to know how old he is. Okay? Because, in the state of Indiana, anyone 13 years and younger, there has to be a report done to CPS.”
At this point, Rose insinuated that her partner was around 30 years old, and the staffer still did not care. “In the state of Indiana, when anyone has had intercourse, and they’re age 13 and younger… it has to be reported to Child Protective Services. I didn’t hear the age. I don’t want to know the age. It can be reported as rape. And that’s child abuse.”
The staffer then coached Rose to lie about her partner. “Just, you know, you’ve seen him around, you know he’s 14, he’s in your grade and whatever. You know what I mean? Okay, so that’s that problem solved.”
No report was made to any authorities.
“I’m not going to tell anybody”
In another of Live Action’s eight undercover videos related to the sex abuse investigation, Rose visited a Planned Parenthood in Memphis, Tennessee, posing as a 14-year-old girl who had been impregnated by a 31-year-old man. The staffer encouraged her to lie to a judge to obtain a judicial bypass, so her parents would not know about the abortion, and again did not report the suspected abuse to authorities.
At first, the counselor told Rose she would need to talk to her manager, and the “boyfriend” would get in trouble. “He’s not supposed to… I mean, he’s your age, double, and more,” she began. “But… in order to get the… I’m not going to tell anybody. OK? Please don’t say that I told you this.”
The counselor then told Rose that when she speaks to the judge, she should not mention her boyfriend — and if it does come up, to lie. “Just say you have a boyfriend 17 years old, whatever,” she said.
Again, the suspected abuse was not reported.
We “bend the rules a little bit”
In Birmingham, Alabama, Rose again posed as a 14-year-old girl impregnated by a 31-year-old man. The staffer vowed to stay quiet about the abuse, gave Rose advice on how to get parental permission for the abortion without her parents actually knowing, and acknowledged that she was not abiding by the state law regarding statutory rape.
Initially, Rose was told she needed parental consent to have the abortion, and responded by saying she didn’t want her parents finding out she was pregnant. So the counselor advised her to have an older sibling pose as a parent, saying, “It’s, um, it’s a state law. Yeah, so you have to have some type of parent consent. Do you have an older sister that’s over the age of 18?”
When a sibling wasn’t able to pose as a parent, Rose asked if her “boyfriend” could give consent. Once she was assured that everything would remain confidential, she told the staffer her boyfriend was 31. When she continued to express concern about her boyfriend getting in trouble for being older, the staffer said, “As long as you consented to having sex with him, there’s nothing we can truly do about that.”
Rose was then told to contact the facility’s manager for help. “I don’t know what she actually does. I know sometimes she does bend the rules a little bit. But in your case, I don’t know if she’ll do that,” the staffer said, and reiterated they wouldn’t tell anyone.
“We can’t say anything to your parents. It’s a HIPAA law. We can’t, even if they call up here, we can’t disclose any information to anybody. Okay? But if you tell us that it’s within these walls, we can’t say anything.”
Once again, the abuse of a child was not reported.
Real-life examples
In addition to this undercover investigation, there are many examples of real-world predators who used abortion to cover up their crimes, with Planned Parenthood as a willing accomplice.
Consider R.Z., for example; a 13-year-old girl, she was taken to Planned Parenthood by her stepfather, who had been sexually abusing her since she was six. When she became pregnant, her stepfather took her for an abortion. Planned Parenthood did not notify her mother or any authorities; they did not question why a man with a different last name was filling out her consent forms, or even ask R.Z. about any potential abuse. Instead, they committed the abortion and sent her back home with her stepfather, where the abuse continued until he was arrested in 2012.
Adam Gault, 40, abducted teen Danielle Cramer and raped her repeatedly. When she became pregnant, he took her to Planned Parenthood for an abortion, where no action was taken to report any suspected abuse. After the facility committed the abortion, Cramer was returned to Gault.
A Planned Parenthood facility in Cincinnati, Ohio, was sued twice for covering up two separate instances of child sexual abuse without reporting it to authorities. In the first lawsuit, a teenage girl was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, and when she was taken to Planned Parenthood for an abortion, she told them she was being abused. Despite this, staff did nothing; they gave her back to her father, and he continued to abuse her for another 18 months. In the second lawsuit, a 14-year-old girl was raped by her 21-year-old boyfriend. No action to help the victims was taken in either of these cases.
In California, a 13-year-old girl was taken to a Planned Parenthood facility by her stepfather for a late-term abortion due to his abuse. Despite having visited the facility twice, staff neglected to reported anything, and the abuse continued for another seven months.
There are, tragically, countless more examples. Planned Parenthood has shown that it does not prioritize the safety of the children who come through its doors, willingly breaking numerous laws regarding the mandated reporting of child sexual abuse. Why should an organization so willing to break the law continue to receive taxpayer funding?
