TimesUp movement should call out Planned Parenthood for decades of aiding abusers

In recent weeks, Live Action released a new investigative report and a seven part docuseries, revealing Planned Parenthood’s decades-long pattern of helping child sex abusers cover up their crimes. Live Action released the report on the heels of the Time’s Up movement exposing sexual abusers and those complicit in protecting them. Some cases go back decades, while Planned Parenthood’s complicity machine continues to grant them cover.

A portion of available cases were detailed in the first part of Live Action’s Aiding Abusers docuseries below:

“Despite Planned Parenthood’s public rhetoric as well as laws requiring it to report suspected abuse, its failure to report has been deliberate and widespread,” said Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action. “Time and again, rather than reporting abuse to authorities, Planned Parenthood has repeatedly looked the other way and performed abortions on victims as young as 12 years old. These girls deserved advocacy but instead Planned Parenthood staff ignored their abuse and returned them to the waiting arms of their abusers.”

The investigate report, titled “Aiding Abusers: Planned Parenthood’s Cover-Up of Child Sexual Abuse,” which also includes a sampling of the available cases, reveals:

• Planned Parenthood has been helping child sex abusers cover up their crimes for decades.
• Planned Parenthood has been caught repeatedly performing abortions on abuse victims as young as 12 and 13 years old, failing to report the abuse to authorities, and sending victims back to their abusers.
• Planned Parenthood appears to have a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy” when it comes to vulnerable teens despite laws in most states requiring abortion doctors and often their staff members to be mandatory reporters of abuse.

Live Action’s investigative report features research from Live Action and other groups, such as Alliance Defending Freedom, Life Dynamics, and others. It contains references to criminal cases, lawsuits, court filings, and regulatory agency reports.

Despite its complicity in covering sexual abuse, Planned Parenthood has hypocritically attached itself to the Time’s Up movement, even though it’s one of the biggest enablers of abuse in the country. And sadly, many of the courageous voices behind the MeToo and TimesUp movements have allied themselves with Planned Parenthood over protecting young girls who are often returned to be abused for weeks, months or years further after visiting Planned Parenthood.

Live Action’s evidence is compelling and factual, despite silence from media, Hollywood, politicians, and the so-called outspoken advocates of “women’s rights”  and “trusting women.”

 

Evidence includes:

• Multiple court cases (civil and criminal).
• Four state health department reports
• Testimonies of four former Planned Parenthood employees
• Two of Live Action’s previous undercover investigations, and
• A study of sex trafficking survivors published by Loyola University.

The report and docuseries represent just a sampling of the documented cases. No child (and there have clearly been many) should remain victimized and abused because of Planned Parenthood’s failures.

These cases, later made public online, came to the attention of authorities because others — not Planned Parenthood — came forward. No one knows the sheer number of victims still suffering at the hands of predators thanks to Planned Parenthood’s lack of reporting.

Planned Parenthood receives millions in federal tax dollars through programs like Title X, though it has frequently flouted state reporting laws:

• Planned Parenthood is the largest recipient of Title X money from taxpayers – about $60 million a year. It is also the nation’s largest abortion provider.
• The majority of Planned Parenthood’s facilities are Title X recipients. In 2015, 474 of nearly 650 were.
• Since 1999, federal regulations have made clear the expectation that Title X grantees follow state laws mandating the reporting of suspected child sexual abuse and rape.
• Live Action’s report came less than a week after the Trump administration proposed new Title X rules in May 2018 that contain a provision now ​requiring​ Title X recipients to comply with state reporting laws.

The current Title X application for funds requires under Legislative Mandates, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no provider of services under Title X of the PHS Act shall be exempt from any State law requiring notification or the reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, or incest.” (Pg. 8)

“[E]very project” must have “project-wide monitoring and reporting policies related to child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, incest, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking” and plans for “annual staff training on policy and protocols… ensuring a clear understanding of the reporting process….” (pg 8-9)

Compliance with state laws “requiring notification or the reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, incest, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking” is expected. (Pg. 10)

Recipients must show “evidence of familiarity with, and ability to provide services” including:

• compliance with State laws applicable in the proposed service area requiring notification or the reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, or incest;
• counseling techniques that encourage family participation in the decision of minors to seek family planning services, and incorporate resistance skills for minors to resist/avoid exploitation and/or sexual coercion;… ” (Pg. 21)

Live Action’s press release says the report and docuseries “come[] less than a week after the Trump administration proposed new rules… [that] would strengthen the reporting language, now requiring all Title X recipients to follow the laws and document how they handle reporting sex crimes against children.”

Key elements include protecting victims by:

• Requiring annual training for staff at Title X clinics and ensuring they have a site-specific protocol in place to protect victims.
• Requiring compliance with State and local laws on reporting or notification of these crimes.
• Providing counseling to minors on how to resist attempts to coerce them into sexual activities.

“Because of flagrant violations like these, the proposed Title X rule tightening on reporting abuse is absolutely necessary,” stated Rose in the release. “Planned Parenthood’s culture of cover-up must end, the cycle of abuse of innocent children must end, and … [t]axpayers cannot be forced to subsidize these abuses of children.”

With evidence stemming back decades, Planned Parenthood must be investigated and its $550 million a year in federal funding must be stopped immediately. As a result, Live Action is calling for:

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Title X, to investigate how widespread these failures are and whether other violations have been covered up.
•  All federal funding to Planned Parenthood to be stopped immediately, including Planned Parenthood’s two biggest sources of taxpayer funding: Title X and Medicaid.

Rose added, “While Planned Parenthood has attached itself to the Time’s Up movement, the movement should be calling out Planned Parenthood for decades of enabling sexual abusers.”

Click here for the full report.

Click here to see all videos in the docuseries.