When is covering up incest and rape acceptable? If you’re the DC Abortion Fund (DCAF) , the answer seems to be when someone needs money for an abortion and you can cover it up with a legal technicality.
The tax-exempt DCAF is one of a network of organizations whose purpose is to help women pay for abortions. Its most recent annual report is laden with disturbing information, including funding abortions for children under 18, working with late term abortionist Leroy Carhart, and providing abortions at over 24 weeks, as well as helping a victim, raped by her father, secretly abort without any reporting of the crime of rape or domestic violence.
The recent Penn State scandal was marked with cover up and collusion like this. When football coach and hero Joe Paterno was accused of covering up sex crimes, the nation was outraged. Though his acts were considered “legal” at the end of the day, they certainly were not considered ethical. That’s why it’s abhorrent to see a report only weeks later from the DCAF boldly bragging about how it “helped” 19-year old Camille, 18 weeks pregnant, abort. DCAF pushes every line of the law and medical ethics with its actions. Legal doesn’t equal ethical, and it certainly doesn’t equal justice for this poor rape victim.
Here’s part of the story from DCAF:
Camille was a 19-year-old teenager who had graduated from high school the year before and was living at home with her father. She called the DCAF helpline, whispering her message into the phone. She had been raped a few months ago and had not wanted to tell anyone about it, but realized she was pregnant and decided to have an abortion. The man who assaulted her was her dad…. Camille was scared of what would happen if she reported her dad to the police, but without a police report, she couldn’t use her Virginia Medicaid to cover her procedure. On top of that, she was 18 weeks pregnant by that point, meaning she would have to go out of state since most clinics in Virginia only provide first-trimester abortion care.
Sadly, in the state of Virginia, there are no mandatory reporting laws for rape, even incestuous rape when the victim is over 18. However, can anyone who knows about sex abuse believe that the day Camille turned 18, Daddy decided to rape her—and only once? That a place that exists to help fund abortions would help pay for one is not shocking, but that they would use a year end report to brag about how they helped cover a father who raped his daughter is shameful. In a sense, this protects the assailant, allowing a rapist, arguably of the worst kind, a father who rapes his daughter, go free. Should a year or two in age permit incest and domestic violence to be legal? Certainly there are flaws in the law here, but the fact that a place purported to help women and care about that would use the law to its advantage and then public brag about it is a sick stance of values.
The DCAF is not alone in its work. It’s part of the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) a registered non-profit agency that receives tax-exempt benefits for its work in areas such as covering up rape on technicalities, providing late-term abortions, and helping underage children get abortions. In 2010, its most recently available IRS 990 tax form declares it to be a “charitable and scientific educational” organization, which is part of its basis for receiving its tax-exempt status. Its income is reported as $827,802.
The DCAF not only helps hide parents who rape their children, but it helps fund those expensive later-term abortions, and brags about that as well, working in conjunction with people like late-term abortion doctor Leroy Carhart, known for being willing to abort babies who could survive outside the womb. DCAF reports:
“[I]n Maryland, with Dr. LeRoy Carhart providing advanced abortion care, our fund has taken on even more responsibility to help women in dire circumstances be seen by a provider.”
Actually, if you want to see them and live out of state, they’d prefer you coming for a later-term abortion:
Women coming to the DC region from outside of the above areas will also be eligible for funding; – 9+ weeks into the pregnancy with priority given to women in the second trimester.
In its annual report for last year, DCAF says it subsidized 127 first trimester abortions, 388 second trimester abortions, and 48 abortions at the age of 24 Weeks plus.
What’s notable about Carhart’s involvement is that he opened his practice in Maryland in Dec of 2010, and the DCAF fiscal year for which this report is applicable, ended on June 30; this is the first recent year in which DCAF is reporting 24 week and later abortion funding—and 48 babies 24 weeks or older were aborted because of the help of this tax-exempt organization.
Rounding out the list is DCAF’s report that “of the 515 patients, 10.5% were under 18 years of age.” Minors are being given money for abortion, as well. We certainly cannot presume that there was more sexual abuse or statutory rape simply from these unrelated reports, nor can we assume there wasn’t parental consent, but it does call into question their practices and at least pose the questions of their criteria for funding the abortions of minors.
The DCAF is a tax-exempt corporation that openly tells its supporter how it helped cover up an iincestuous, domestic violence relationship, with no comments of following up with her or how they helped her beyond that. Then they openly report that 10.5% of people they pay for abortions for are under the age of 18.
There’s no doubt that most who come to a place like this are probably desperate and scared, but is the answer to toss money at them, take the baby (sometimes viable) from their womb and send them on their way? Giving someone a phone number of a crisis clinic isn’t help. And giving cash for abortions to women with bigger crises than an undesired child may be the real damage done to women because when someone like Camille goes home, what’s to stop her dad from raping her again? This baby is gone, but the real problem isn’t.
While DCAF and its parent network NNAF may operate on legal technicalities, it would behoove us to look at this organization closely and ask tough questions, especially related to underage abortion funding and incest. These are areas in which the victims need people watching out for the “helpers.”
LifeNews Note: This column originally appeared at Bound4Life’s blog and is reprinted with permission.
