In the months following the release of videos from Live Action showing footage of undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood centers helping alleged sex traffickers obtain abortions for minor girls, the abortion business did little to show how it helped the victims.
The videos featured staff at the abortion centers willing to help arrange abortions and STD testing for the girls victimized by the traffickers without appearing to show any concern for their well-being. Live Action officials now indicate just two of the seven Planned Parenthood abortion centers indicated told the media they contacted law enforcement authorities as required by law in each of the states and the District of Columbia where the videos were filmed.
“Planned Parenthood has not released documentation showing what law enforcement they contacted and when,” says Live Action spokesman David Schmidt. “They have simply covered their tracks by pointing to the belated letter that they wrote to the Justice Department.”
“Out of seven clinic videos released, in only two cases (Roanoke and Charlottesville) has Planned Parenthood publicly said what local law enforcement they contacted,” he added. “When faced with a situation of suspected child sexual abuse, Planned Parenthood doesn’t have the luxury of deciding what cases to report and which ones not to. The law doesn’t give them that decision making power.”
In the case of Charlottesville, Planned Parenthood claimed it contacted the local Albemarle police but a police official reported to the media that he have no record of a child sex abuse report coming from Planned Parenthood.
On January 11, Live Action conducted an undercover investigation of the Charlottesville, Virginia Planned Parenthood clinic. The undercover reporter posed as a man who ran an international child sex ring and inquired about getting sexual health services for the girls he manages that were as young as 14. The investigation was to test whether Planned Parenthood would promptly report the suspected sex ring to law enforcement.
On February 4, David Nova, vice president for Planned Parenthood Health Systems Inc, told the News Virginian that “police were notified after the man left.” https://www2.newsvirginian.com/news/2011/feb/04/anti-abortion-group-releases-more-va-videos-ar-820956/
“The employees on these edited tapes in Roanoke and Charlottesville acted professionally in their interactions with the fake patient,” Nova said in a released statement. “In both cases, they promptly reported the incidents to their supervisors.”
But the report also indicates Albemarle police Sgt. Darrell Byers told the newspaper no one in his department received any information from Planned Parenthood about the sex trafficker, though he said it was possible Planned Parenthood officials called and no report was made.
“Did Planned Parenthood make a false claim that they had reported the incident?” Schmidt asks. “Did they attempt to report the incident but fail to convey the gravity of the situation? It is hard to imagine that Planned Parenthood would have been able to report an international child sex ring without a report being made.”
In the case of Roanoke, Virginia, the site of the only other Planned Parenthood to say it contact local officials, Schmidt said it “appeared that Planned Parenthood staff did the right thing and promptly contacted local law enforcement.”
But, “doing the right thing on one of seven cases is not a good record,” Schmidt concluded. “These revelations show once again the need for a serious investigation into Planned Parenthood’s child sex abuse reporting procedures.”
