Feeling bored? Don’t worry, I’ve got a guessing game for you.
Colorado’s Office of Children, Youth, & Families has a website focusing on child abuse. It identifies over forty professionals who “are required by law to report suspected child abuse and neglect,” with most medical professionals making the list. When should they be suspicious? Well, if “the child becomes pregnant or contracts a venereal disease, particularly if under age 14,” then that’s usually a bad sign.
So now it’s time to play round one. Imagine you’re working at an abortion center and a 13-year-old gets brought in by a middle aged man. Would you suspect abuse? If you answered “yes,” I’ve got some good news: you just might be smarter than a Planned Parenthood staffer.
Smarter than the ones Timothy Smith found, anyway. He brought his 13 year-old victim to a Planned Parenthood in Colorado after getting her pregnant. Thanks to the abortion she received, Smith was able to keep the abuse hidden and ongoing. The employees there didn’t sound too concerned; one later admitted that “being thirteen and pregnant alone is not a red flag.” They weren’t the only ones who felt that way.
Fellow child rapist Gary Cross took his 13-year-old stepdaughter to Planned Parenthood when her mother noticed she was gaining weight. While not going to the authorities, staff did book an abortion for her.
In Washington, Luis Gonzalez-Jose raped an 11-year-old before having Planned Parenthood abort the evidence. John Blanks, Jr., Adam Gault, Joseph Coles, Kevon Walker, Edgar Ramirez, and Grey David Woods followed the same approach.
Accused serial rapist Tyler Kost apparently got a hand without even knowing it. When one of his alleged victims went to Planned Parenthood, staff refused to report the rape because they didn’t “want the hassle.” Local law enforcement have said an investigation could have been opened months earlier if the report had been filed.
She wasn’t the only victim who got ignored: in a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, Denise Fairbanks said she explicitly told the abortion facility staff that her incestuous father had brought her. Rather than call the police, employees turned her back over to him when they were done. Planned Parenthood opted to settle.
And it doesn’t stop there. The group Life Dynamics made calls to Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation centers across the country. On each call, an actress claimed to be a 13-year-old who’d been impregnated by her adult boyfriend. During literally hundreds of recorded conversations, staff offered to hide the abuse by setting up a secret abortion.
That fits with Live Action’s findings. When Live Action founder Lila Rose told a Planned Parenthood counselor she was 14 and pregnant via a 31-year-old man, the counselor instructed her to lie about the man’s age when seeking an abortion. Visits to other abortion facilities brought similar answers.
Alright, let’s play round two. Every year, Planned Parenthood receives over half a billion federal tax dollars. Do you think there might be places that can deliver better care without enabling rape and abuse? If you said “yes” again, you’re on a roll.
Over nine thousand federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) provide care to those with limited means. Unlike Planned Parenthood, FQHCs performed over five hundred thousand mammograms in 2014. Meanwhile, they didn’t help rapists stay out of jail.
Tell Congress you want Planned Parenthood’s funding redirected to FQHCs. And if you think someone is being abused, contact your local authorities. Because while stopping sexual violence isn’t a game, it is a struggle that we’re fighting to win.
