The Oxymoron of Planned Parenthood

Three recent events have exposed the stark contrast between Planned Parenthood's (PP) talk and their walk. The obvious contradiction between their name and near-universal advocacy of abortion for every pregnant woman entering their office is apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Two cases in Ohio and an undercover investigation in California may drain the swamp at PP clinics, exposing secrets lying stagnant for decades. Why should you care? Because you pay their bills.

In Ohio, a 14 year-old-girl was the victim of sexual abuse by a 21-year-old soccer coach. He took her to a PP clinic where she used a school I.D. and he paid with a credit card and showed his driver's license. According to court records, the clinic employee failed to report the abuse law enforcement. There are similar cases in Kansas and Indiana.

Another Ohio teenager was sexually abused by her father for five years beginning at age 13, becoming pregnant at 16 when her father forced her to have an abortion. The girl says she told a clinic worker her father had repeatedly raped her, but again the clinic failed to report the crime. The abuse continued for another year-and-a-half before the girl finally went to a school counselor who then reported the information to authorities. John Blanks, Jr. was sentenced to five years in prison for five years of raping his own daughter. The girl has now filed suit against Planned Parenthood saying she suffered nearly two years of abuse that could have been prevented if the clinic employee had obeyed the law and reported the abuse.

In California, Lila Rose, a female college student writing an undercover investigative story for a school newspaper secretly videotaped her interaction with a Santa Monica clinic employee. Rose told the clinic worker she was a 15-year-old who had been impregnated by her 23-year-old boyfriend. The clinic worker, required by California state law to report the pregnancy since the girl was under 16, told Rose to lie about her age by "figuring out a birth date that works," to make her appear older and skirt the law. Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California President Kathy Kneer admitted the worker broke the law, but decided to show how concerned she is for women's health by focusing on the method used to expose the crime instead of the crime itself. Kneer called the undercover methods "manipulative," and has filed a cease-and-desist order to prevent Rose from further exposing the clinic's actions.

All three of these clinics receive millions of dollars in federal grants every year. Glad to know my taxes are giving law enforcement something to do. I guess finding that "right" to abortion-on-demand in the Constitutional "penumbra" isn't so bad after all. I mean, if taxpayers are forced to fund abortion rights, then maybe I can get federal money to fund my right to bear arms and use federal tax money to buy handguns from reputable dealers. That way I wouldn't have to buy them in those scary back-alleys where Planned Parenthood says abortions used to be performed.

As these three cases unfold, more are coming to light. A group called Life Dynamics conducted a phone campaign in 2002, having a woman posing as a pregnant 13-year-old call clinics operated by both PP and the National Abortion Foundation. Life Dynamics said they've collected over 800 tapes with clinic workers saying things like, "[T]ell them your boyfriend is 16 or something because he could get in a lot of trouble," and, "I wouldn't advise you to say anything about your boyfriend being 22, because that's statutory rape."

Consequently, PP is now circling the wagons and resorting to the standard ploy of attacking the victims instead of addressing the problem, saying many of these girls are pawns of conservative organizations. But none of these girls went to political action groups with their stories; they went to law enforcement and private attorneys for help. Now that those officials have kicked the anthill, all kinds of things are turning up and PP officials are scurrying for cover.

Do these clinics have a right to exist? Sure they do. Do they have a right to our money to fund criminal activity that enables predators to abuse young girls for years? Absolutely not.

And guess what money Planned Parenthood will use to defend themselves in court?