The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, recently said that state laws meant to protect teenage girls are “worrying.” In a new video, the organization’s Principal Policy Associate, Kimya Forouzan, spoke about why Guttmacher thinks laws preventing non-parental adults from taking teens across state lines for abortions is “dangerous.”
“As of March 27th [2024], four states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — have introduced bills specifically targeting young people who travel out of state for abortion care,” said Forouzan, continuing:
The bill has died in Mississippi but is still under consideration in Alabama, Tennessee, and Oklahoma — three states that already ban abortion. If enacted, these bills would criminalize adults who support a minor in obtaining an abortion out of state without their parent’s knowledge or consent.
These restrictions may sound reasonable, but are dangerous.
Most young people already involve their parent or guardian in their abortion decision. When they don’t, they have a good reason, for example, because they fear for their safety or might get kicked out of their home. At the end of the day, all young people should be able to make health care decisions that are best for them.
With the 2024 state legislative sessions well underway, Kimya Forouzan (@kimyaf) from our state policy team is breaking down a worrying trend—and what it means for young people’s access to abortion care. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/VJ6w9aTDTd
— Guttmacher Institute (@Guttmacher) April 16, 2024
Why these laws matter
Forouzan on behalf of Guttmacher is careful not to say the word “minor” when she speaks about these laws and instead uses the words “young people” with no indication of the age group she is referencing. The bills, however, are clear that they are about protecting “minors” from being brought across state lines by an “adult.” Tennessee’s HB 1895 states:
This bill provides that an adult commits the offense of abortion trafficking of a minor if the adult recruits, harbors, or transports a pregnant unemancipated minor within this state for the purpose of
(i) concealing an act that would constitute a criminal abortion from the parents or guardian of the pregnant unemancipated minor;
(ii) procuring an act that would constitute a criminal abortion for the pregnant unemancipated minor, regardless of where the abortion is to be procured; or
(iii) obtaining an abortion-inducing drug for the pregnant unemancipated minor for the purpose of an act that would constitute a criminal abortion, regardless of where the abortion-inducing drug is obtained.
Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 1778 has this definition: “Any person who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parent or legal guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor, either procures an abortion […] or obtains an abortion-inducing drug for the pregnant minor to use for an abortion by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state commits the crime of abortion trafficking.”
Alabama House Bill 378 states, “This bill would provide that it is a Class A misdemeanor for any person, with the intent to conceal an abortion from a minor’s parents or guardian, to harbor or transport a minor girl and obtain, or aid and abet her in obtaining, an abortion or abortion-inducing drug.”
“Minor” is clear — it means a person under the age of 18. “Young people” sounds a lot like “young adult” which is defined as ages 18 to 26. But these bills aren’t talking about young adults; they are aimed at protecting children — and these laws are necessary.
In November 2023, Rachael Swainston and her son Kadyn were arrested for taking a 15-year-old girl from Idaho to Oregon for an abortion. They were charged with multiple felonies, including second-degree kidnapping, rape, and three counts of producing child sexually exploitative material. Though the girl had agreed to an abortion, she had wanted to tell her parents, but Rachael threatened to kick her out of the home if she did. Rachael scheduled the abortion for the teen at Planned Parenthood in Bend, Oregon.
In December 2023, Planned Parenthood staff members were caught during an undercover investigation sharing their active involvement in helping adults get teen girls across state lines for abortions. As previously reported by Live Action News, an undercover video by Project Veritas (PV) shows a conversation between a woman identified as Lashauna — the Managing Director of Planned Parenthood in Kansas City, Missouri — and a male undercover investigator (who is off-screen). The male investigator inquires about obtaining an abortion for a 13-year-old girl, and admits that he doesn’t want this 13-year-old girl’s parents to know. Lashauna assures him, “We never tell,” and gives him information about two abortion locations across state lines in Kansas.
Missouri law states that people ages 13 and under cannot consent to sex with anyone and no minor can consent to an abortion. Planned Parenthood is legally required to report the sexual abuse of this girl, but instead is handing a man — who could be abusing her — information about taking her for an abortion.
Reasonable vs. Dangerous
Guttmacher believes that laws meant to protect minors from sexual abuse and potential forced or coerced abortions are unreasonable and even “dangerous.” There isn’t much data to back up Forouzan’s claim that most teens talk to their parents about their abortion decision, but a 1991 national survey found that of more than 1,500 unmarried minors living in states with parental knowledge laws regarding abortion, 61% discussed the decision to have an abortion with at least one of their parents.
But the first problem here is that this data is more than three decades old.
The second problem is that it doesn’t matter, because it’s the other 39% who need protecting; if they aren’t telling their parents about their abortion, they could be being coerced into having one.
Forouzan is making the assumption that if these girls aren’t telling their parents about their pregnancy or their abortion, there is a good reason. But she doesn’t know that. Any of those girls could be sexual assault victims or victims of forced or coerced abortion by their abusers. And evidence already shows that this is a huge problem that the abortion industry wants to keep under wraps.
One example is that of Sage Robert Lanza, who received a suspended 10-year sentence in 2018 for having sex with two underage victims ages 12 and 14, one of whom he impregnated. When he learned she was pregnant, he brought her to Planned Parenthood where he forced the 14-year-old to undergo an abortion. A look at the timeline of events indicates that Planned Parenthood likely failed to report any suspicion of abuse as required by law. The Journal Inquirer explained that Lanza impregnated the teen in November of 2014 and she said he forced her to have the abortion in January 2015, but police were not notified until July 2015 — seven months after the teen was at Planned Parenthood.
In another case, a 56-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct after he was accused of sexually abusing and impregnating a 14-year-old girl with learning disabilities. He then paid for her abortion at Planned Parenthood.
The abortion industry has made a bad habit of helping sexual abusers. Live Action’s Aiding Abusers investigation revealed Planned Parenthood employees at seven facilities in several states were aiding undercover journalists posing as “sex traffickers” by counseling them on how to get abortions for their victims. “We help you kinda set it up and then you – we have a specific confidential hotline that will call you at whatever number you give us and handle the whole thing,” said the Planned Parenthood staffer. “So, for someone who’s a minor, that’s a really good option. We do them probably once or twice a month here…. So we’re – we’re pretty good at handling if someone, you know, doesn’t want someone else to know, or doesn’t want parents—”
There are reasons that children live under the care of their parents or guardians, incuding that they don’t have the ability to self-regulate or control their impulses, skills that continue to develop into early adulthood.
In the 1997 Supreme Court Case of Washington v. Gucksberg, the Court declared that the Constitution, specifically the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the fundamental right of parents to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. The abortion industry wants society to ignore that so it can financially benefit from the vulnerability of minor-aged girls.
It isn’t that laws against abortion trafficking are “dangerous” for girls; they are dangerous to the abortion industry’s bottom line.
