SEXUAL ABUSE REPORTING LAWS:

ENDING ABORTION INDUSTRY’S COMPLICITY IN THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS

By Patrick Lavin,

2007 AUL Summer Fellow

In a small Illinois town, a 13-year-oldseventh grade girl named Jessica, unbeknownst to her parents or to anyone else, walks out of school to meet with her 37-year-old teacher, Mr. Cummings. Mr. Cummings has convinced Jessica to visit the local family planning clinic and Jessica complies. What is the reason for this trip to the clinic? The student and the teacher are involved in an illegal sexual relationship, and Mr. Cummings would like to secure contraceptives for Jessica. He no longer wants to be burdened with wearing a condom during sex with Jessica, and so he has decided to pursue other means of birth control.

Mr. Cummings and Jessica walk into the federally-funded family planning (and abortion) clinic. Jessica is noticeably nervous. Mr. Cummings assures her that everything will be alright and that no one will find out about their secret affair. When they arrive at the clinic, Mr. Cummings requests that Jessica be given a shot of Depo Provera, a very powerful and controversial contraceptive.¹ Jessica’s information, including her age, is documented, but no questions are asked about the man who brought her to the clinic. Only when Jessica is taken into another room to have the drug administered does she let slip to the clinic staffer that the man who brought her in is her teacher and the true nature of their relationship is revealed. The clinic staffer, though required by law to report this as statutory rape, assures Jessica that her secret is safe and that no one will find out.

While most people would find such a story deeply disturbing, it is all too common. In fact, the story outlined above is an adaptation of an event that was brought to light by Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) in the late 1990s.² More recently, a college student from UCLA went undercover in two Los Angeles Planned Parenthood clinics and recorded a similar result.³

ISSUES

Currently, all 50 states have laws requiring healthcare professionals to report the suspected sexual abuse of minors, including statutory rape. The federal government also mandates that Title X healthcare facilities comply with state criminal reporting laws. However, there is substantial and developing evidence that many family planning and abortion clinics are not reporting all instances of suspected abuse, and are instead advising minors and their abusers on how to circumvent the law. As a result, sexual predators are free to continue to abuse their victims, scarring them for life.

Statutory rape is a major problem in the United States. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that half of all children born to minors are fathered by adult men. ⁴ HHS also found that 75% of girls under 14 years of age who have had sex report having a forced sexual experience. ⁵ In a similar report by the Massachusetts Family Institute, nearly 55% of children born to girls in the state who are 15 years old or younger were fathered by an adult male.⁶

The goal of the pro-life movement, therefore, should be to champion legislation that requires family planning and abortion clinics and their employees to report all cases of suspected sexual abuse to state authorities and to impose strict penalties upon anyone who is found to be circumventing these laws or encouraging non-reporting of sexual abuse.

MYTHS & FACTS

Myth: Family planning and abortion providers (such as Planned Parenthood) are focused on protecting the health and welfare of minor girls and, as such, report suspected sexual abuse as required by state law.

Fact: These facilities consistently encourage girls who are victims of statutory rape to lie or simply conceal incriminating information. Several years ago, Life Dynamics undertook an undercover study in which a caller posed as a 13-year-old girl who had been impregnated by her 22-year-old boyfriend. Of the over 800 Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation clinics that were called, 91 percent of the staffers spoken to advised the girl to lie about either her age or the age of her boyfriend or to simply remain silent on the issue. ⁷ Just this past spring, a UCLA student named Lila Rose posed as a 15-year-old who was impregnated by her 23-year-old boyfriend. Under California law, this constitutes statutory rape. Lila went to two separate Planned Parenthood clinics in Southern California and was encouraged to lie about her age in order to be able to procure an abortion and avoid legal problems for her boyfriend.⁸

Myth: Exempting confidential healthcare providers and their staffs from mandatory reporting requirements would help to lessen the burden on law enforcement and reporting agencies by reducing the number of unwarranted or unsubstantiated reports.

Fact: If the examples detailed above prove anything, it is that we must implement stricter mandatory reporting requirements. Planned Parenthood along with other abortion and family planning providers are too often complicit in serious crimes and are allowing deviant criminals to go unpunished. Additionally, studies have shown that with tougher laws and stricter enforcement, the sexual assault of children is on the decline, allowing state agencies to handle new cases.⁹

Myth: Family planning and abortion clinics are unfair targets of mandatory reporting requirements.

Fact: Providers like Planned Parenthood are ideal subjects for mandatory reporting requirements. They provide abortions, contraceptives, and gynecological care to clients of all ages. In 2005 and 2006, Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide performed roughly 1/6 of the total abortions in the United States and offered a wide array of contraceptive options.¹⁰

As if the events discussed above were not enough evidence of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry’s frequent complicity in the sexual abuse of minors, a pair of troubling stories has emerged from Southwest Ohio. First, a 16-year-old girl who was being repeatedly raped by her father since she was 13 was forced to have an abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Cincinnati. The frightened victim told the staff about the constant rapes, but the staff did nothing. They did not report the father to the authorities, thereby allowing him to continue to rape her for over two more years before a school official was notified and reported the situation to the police. ¹¹ Yet another girl in Southwest Ohio was a victim of the same incompetence and uncaring attitude. The victim was a 14-year-old girl who was being forced to have sex with her 21-year-old soccer coach. When the rapist took his victim to Planned Parenthood for an abortion, the young girl used a junior high school I.D. and the soccer coach paid with a credit card, giving his driver’s license for identification. Planned Parenthood did not ask any questions and never reported the crime. The young girl underwent an abortion (without the involvement of a parent as required by Ohio law), was given birth control pills, and was sent home with the rapist. The soccer coach continued to rape her for another year and a half. ¹² In each of these instances, Planned Parenthood is now being sued for its failure to comply with state reporting laws and for permitting the continued and violent abuse of these two young girls.

CASE STUDY: SUCCESS IN TEXAS

In 2001, Texas’s Governor Rick Perry signed into law legislation that strengthened mandatory reporting laws for healthcare and reproductive care employees. One of the main provisions of the bill stripped much of the discretion that these employees enjoyed in terms of what cases of sexual abuse they were required to report. Since that time, they have been required to report all cases of sexual contact that involve clients under 17 years of age unless the partner is less than three years older. Moreover, all sexual contact that involves a client under 14 years of age must be reported regardless of the age of the partner.¹³

Planned Parenthood complained that this law would result in a flood of frivolous claims of sexual assault and statutory rape. They contended that real cases would be lost in the shuffle of the bureaucracy and children would suffer the consequences. Six years later, however, that has not proven to be the case. In 2000, there were 6,925 confirmed allegations of sexual abuse of children in the state of Texas.¹⁴ After the implementation of the new mandatory reporting requirements, confirmed allegations rose fairly steadily. By 2006, however, the number of confirmed allegations of sexual abuse of children had fallen back near 2000 levels (to 7,176). ¹⁵ Clearly, strong reporting requirements protect children and lead to more sexual predators and child rapists being identified and prosecuted.

In the wake of recent scandals involving Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation, even stricter mandatory reporting laws and harsher penalties for violation of those laws are called for.

STATE OF THE STATES

While there has not been much recent legislation in this area, all 50 states have statutory rape laws that make sexual contact with a minor a crime, though there is significant variation in the laws from state to state.¹⁶ The age of consent in the states ranges from 16 to 18 years of age, with 32 of the states setting the age of consent at 16 years.¹⁷ In two-thirds of the states, statutory rape is a reportable offense regardless of the relationship between the victim and the rapist. In the remaining states, reporting of statutory rape is only mandated when the perpetrator is someone who is responsible for the care of the child.¹⁸

In terms of who must report suspected cases of sexual abuse and statutory rape, it is ordinarily anyone who encounters the victim in his or her professional capacity. These mandatory reporters often include teachers, legal professionals, and clergy, and universally include healthcare providers.¹⁹ While some states allow these mandatory reporters to exercise discretion in the cases they report, a majority of states do not.²⁰

WHAT TO DO IN 2008

States need to expand the definition of “mandatory reporters” to include all employees of abortion and reproductive healthcare clinics and offices (not just medical professionals such as doctors and nurses). Currently, when confronted with their failure to report suspected abuse, clinics often attempt to argue that non-medical personnel are not required to report suspected abuse. Expanding this definition would also preclude them from circumventing reporting laws by having non-medical personnel do the patient screening or by encouraging screening personnel to counsel the minor girl on how to avoid providing information that might trigger a duty to report.
States that have not removed the discretion from confidential healthcare providers and others as to what cases of sexual abuse they must report should immediately do so. Relatively few states allow such discretion in reporting but, as Texas has shown, removing the discretion yields appreciable results.
Additionally, harsher penalties must be implemented and enforced against clinics and employees who fail to report instances of suspected sexual abuse. Since the penalties in place for failure to report statutory rape are often civil in nature, states should seriously consider increasing the possible fines for those who fail to report.

Simply, Planned Parenthood and other abortion and reproductive healthcare providers must be put on notice that their current practices are not acceptable and will not be tolerated. It’s time to put the health and welfare of minor girls ahead of the abortion industry’s profit margins.

Endnotes

¹ http://www.plannedparenthood.org/birth-control-pregnancy/birth-control/the-shot.htm (last updated May 1, 2006)

² http://www.hslda.org/docs/hshb/10/hshb1004.asp (last visited June 27, 2007)

³ Michelle Malkin, Not All Undercover Journalists Are Equal; A Sting Conducted on Planned Parenthood is Treated Differently From One on Military Recruiters, The Grand Rapids Press, May 18, 2007, at A10.

⁴ Asaph Glosser, Karen Gardinier & Mike Fishman, Statutory Rape: A Guide to State Laws and Reporting Requirements 1 (The Lewin Group ed., 2004) (2004).

⁵ Id. at 1

⁶ Matthew Daniels & Dan Englund, Statutory Rape: When Adults Prey Sexually Upon Children

⁷(Massachusetts Family Institute ed., 1998) (1998). 7 Mark Crutcher, Child Predators: Exposing the Partnership Between Planned Parenthood, The National Abortion Federations and Men Who Sexually Abuse Underage Girls, http://www.childpredators.com/ReadReport.cfm (last visited July 2, 2007).

⁸ Malkin, supra note 3.

⁹David Finkelhor & Linda M. Jones, Explanations For the Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Juvenile Justice Bulletin, Jan. 2004, at 3.

¹⁰Randy Hall, Planned Parenthood Reports Record Abortions, High Profits, CNSNews.com, available at http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200706/CUL20070615a.html (last visited July 2, 2007). ¹¹Peter Bronson, Planned Parenthood Looked the Other Way, Mason Rape Victim Says, Cincinnati Enquirer, May 10, 2007, at 7B.

¹²Id. at 7B

¹³Cynthia Daillard, Statutory Rape Reporting and Family Planning Programs: Moving Beyond Conflict, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, available at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/07/2/gr070210.html (last visited July 2, 2007).

¹⁴Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services, 2000 Data Book 54 (State of Texas 2000).

¹⁵Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services, 2006 Data Book 54 (State of Texas 2006).

¹⁶U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2003 Child Abuse and Neglect State Statutes Series Statutes at a Glance: Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services 2003).

¹⁷See Glosser et. al supra note iv at 6-7

¹⁸Id. at ES-2.

¹⁹See U.S. Dept. HHS supra note 16 at 1.

²⁰See Glosser et.al supra note 4 at 12-13.