Jailbait

Salon.com ^ | September 26, 2002 | Katharine Mieszkowski

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Jailbait
How antiabortion zealots posing as underage girls tried to entrap Planned Parenthood workers.

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By Katharine Mieszkowski

The girl on the phone says she's 13 and pregnant by her 22-year-old boyfriend. She needs an abortion, but doesn't want her parents to find out. Can Planned Parenthood help?

Sure, just as long as she doesn't reveal her boyfriend's age when she comes in for the procedure. She wouldn't want him to get into trouble, now would she?

There's just one catch: There is no distraught 13-year-old girl, no unwanted pregnancy and no cradle-robbing, 22-year-old boyfriend.

The caller is an operative in an elaborate sting conducted by the antiabortion group Life Dynamics. It's a campaign that seeks to paint Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers as silent accomplices in thousands of unreported pedophilia and statutory rape cases. It's a deft guerrilla maneuver by the antiabortion camp. Life Dynamics is wielding laws relating to child abuse in an entirely different arena -- to threaten underage girls' rights to an abortion.

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It's Salon, so expectations are low. On the off-chance that someone here has a subscription to the rag, would you mind posting the rest of the article, or at least letting me know if the author mentioned the Planned Parenthood conference in Denver? Or dealt with evidence from sources (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/712712/posts)?

I particularly like the: "It's a campaign that seeks to paint Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers as silent accomplices in thousands of unreported pedophilia and statutory rape cases."

If you're a 25-year-old having sex with a 12-year-old and you get her pregnant, then abortion clinics are your best friend. Period. Get rid of the evidence, and turn the girl back into your little hump-hump toy. Abortion clinics won't tell. Just bring cash or credit cards -- no checks.

Also, Google has for a while listed childpredators.com as the first link when searching for "Planned Parenthood" and "statutory rape".

[jlogajan]

Abortion clinics provide services for people seeking abortions -- they aren't police agencies.

If you take your car into the body shop after a wreck, it isn't the body shops job to investigate whether you wrecked in violation of some traffic law.

I guess cultural conservatives love government mandates on private businesses when it suits their agenda. Figures.

[Drango]

You forgot the obligatory Salon stock graph...

[The FRugitive]

I went to go read the rest of the article. They want you to PAY to read that? LOL.

[KSCITYBOY]

I understand what your getting at but if a kid goes to the hospital with bruises they try to find out how they happened. Is that wrong also? What about gun shot wounds?

[alnick]

If you take your car into the body shop after a wreck, it isn't the body shops job to investigate whether you wrecked in violation of some traffic law.

No, but if there's a dead body in the trunk, they sure as hell better call the police. Likewise if a child is pregnant they have a responsibility to report that crime as well.

[Ramius]

Actually, that's not quite right. If you admit that you damaged the car in say, a hit and run incident and they repair the car without reporting the crime, they become an accomplice.

[Ramius]

Hmm... Perhaps "accessory after the fact" would be more accurate.

[William McKinley]

"It's a campaign that seeks to paint Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers as silent accomplices in thousands of unreported pedophilia and statutory rape cases."

Actually, it sounds like a campaign that seeks to reveal PP and other abortionists as silent accomplices in thousands of unreported pedophilia and statutory rape cases.

[toenail]

jlogajan's To Do List:

• Get elected to a state legislature.
• Change the laws concerning mandatory reporting of suspected statutory rape and child molestation.
• Come back to Free Republic and then talk.

[William McKinley]

People aren't cars. And if one comes across evidence that another human being has been physically violated, one has a moral obligation to do something about it, not to mention a legal obligation.

[gubamyster]

If you take your car into the body shop after a wreck, it isn't the body shops job to investigate whether you wrecked in violation of some traffic law.

No but if there was a dead body in the trunk or a bloddy body stuck to the front grill the body shop would certainly be remiss to report an obvious crime to the authorities.

An under age girl pregnant by an older man is by definition a crime. It isn't a government mandate, it is the reporting of an admitted crime - statutory rape. If the abortion clinic is in knowledge of this they are required to report it. That is why PP is advising the underage girls not to provide details to the clinic.

[toenail]

I have more threads on this bookmarked on my profile page.

[gubamyster]

bloddy=bloody

[gundog]

...one has a moral obligation to do something about it, not to mention a legal obligation.

The first may be true, the second may be true in some jurisdictions, but not all. The failure to report a crime is not, in and of itself, a crime in some states.

[Schmedlap]

"Life Dynamics is wielding laws relating to child abuse in an entirely different arena -- to threaten underage girls' rights to an abortion."

This is based on the assumption that an "underage" girl has a right to an abortion. Does anyone have a right to get an abortion? If the developing child is not a person, then maybe yes. If the developing child is a person, then no. In either case, do children have a right to an abortion?

Given that children have underdeveloped brains - both physically and emotionally - it would seem to follow that there is grounds for non-recognition of a right to an abortion, given that such a right were to exist. A good criterion for what rights of a child should not be recognized is whatever a parent decides, within the bounds of denying sound health of the child. A good guideline for a parent to follow is that any right which is physically or emotionally self-destructive, when exercised, is not recognized.

Given that children are the responsibility of their parents, it seems reasonable that government can pass laws requiring any business or institution to obtain parental permission for anything that a child does, to include abortions, field trips, purchasing tobacco, watching a movie - anything so long as obtaining permission does not endanger the life of the child (for example, waiting for permission to remove an infected appendix).

This does not deny rights of the children, rather it ensures that their parent approves of the association between the child and the business/institution. For this article to see the actions of Life Dynamics as an attempt to threaten underage girls' right to an abortion could be warrented, if certain assumptions are made. But, regardless of those assumptions, it seems to ignore the responsibility of the parent to deem what is acceptable behavior for the child.

Is this to suggest that we should let 13-year-old girls do whatever they want? If one can justify allowing a 13-year-old girl to get an abortion without her parents' permission, then what "rights" of the child can be regulated by the parent? It would be interesting to hear the rationalization for this.

[William McKinley]

I think you will find that the failure to report statutory rape is the law in most states.

[William McKinley]

Actually, all 50 states have laws requiring the reporting of sexual abuse of a minor.

http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0022275.html

[JustAnAmerican]

"I guess cultural conservatives love government mandates on private businesses when it suits their agenda. Figures.

What planet do you live on? Or maybe you just spout off information you know nothing about? Since when has PP not been state(taxpayer) funded? Last time I checked if you recieved money from State/Federal government sources you had to abide by their mandates.

[DWPittelli]

There is no broad requirement ro report crimes, even crimes against children such as statutory rape. However, health care workers and agencies are legally reqired to report statutory rape and other such crimes of abuse, in all 50 states.

And even if they could otherwise get out of the law by, say, subcontacting out the phone answering, and making sure the people on the phone had no medical experience or training, it would still probably be illegal for them to give advice to the girls on how to evade the legal requirements (e.g., "don't tell us how old he is when you come in").

In short, Planned Parenthood looks as guilty here as the Catholic Church in terms of shielding statutory rapists. It's merely a question of ideology as to who should get a pass from the law.