14 Comments on “Pro-life sting: ALL Illinois Planned Parenthoods willing to hide under-age rape”

1. 
   ninek
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 11:53 am
   

   I am a volunteer at my church and we have mandatory Safe Child training.  Even though I don’t work directly with youth, we ALL had to sign a paper indicating that we must report suspected abuse to the authorities.  This included both the youth and the elderly that are served by our volunteers and even those volunteers that don’t work with either the youth or the elderly.   Those of us that do work directly with the young and the old, also had to have our fingerprints taken, our health evaluated for things including TB, and our names run through the system as a background check according to Megan’s Law.

   Why should Planned Parenthood receptionists and staff be excluded from such a common sense procedure??

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2. 
   LibertyBelle
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 12:36 pm
   

   I agree, Ninek! There is a disgusting double standard for the abortion industry. Anywhere else, when you are working with children or the elderly, precautions are taken to ensure that abuse gets reported. 

   But in Planned Parenthood, which could/should be the first safety net for detecting the sexual abuse of minors (where else would pimps, abused girls, abusers, etc go to get help?), this is not done or if it is, company policy is not enforced. 

   PlannedParenthood is a horrible organization and in the one redeeming quality it MAY have had (ie catching sexual abusers), it fails utterly.

   I wonder why? Hm. (sarcasm)

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3. 
   Carla
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 12:41 pm
   

   $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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4. 
   Karen
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 1:29 pm
   

   I think there is some misunderstanding about what is a crime and what is mandated reporting. I have been out of Illinois several years, but when I worked there if I even TRIED to report this type of situation (that I ran into all the time at a teen prenatal care site) DCFS wouldn’t take it. Mandated reporting in Illinois must not be for situations that (legally) constitute child abuse. Which means the situation must not only involve an adult it must be an adult in position of authority (teacher, father, minister, mother’s boyfriend etc). That is the criteria that makes a situation child abuse and reportable. Otherwise, although it may be a crime (in Illinois sexual battery of a child), it is not reportable and DCFS won’t take a report. Seriously. If you don’t believe it, try it Similar to lots of other crimes that health care workers don’t report (drug abuse, underage drinking etc). Other states are different and every minor who is sexually active is supposed to be reported, but not Illinois. So I only listened to a few of these, but I have to say the employees there were doing and saying all the same things we did at several other community organizations in IL.

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5. 
   Roz
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 1:47 pm
   

   Karen, what you say shocks me, but it’s congruent with something I discovered in Michigan. I’m a mandatory reporter because of my job, and I learned of a situation in which a single parent with shared custody of the children is sleeping in the same bed and showering with a 10-year-old child of the opposite sex. The state agency informed me that it was clearly inappropriate, but until there was alleged an actual sexual assault (!), their hands were tied.
   It would be worthwhile to find out exactly what each state government is willing or able to take action on, rather than just blindly assuming that reporting a situation means that it will be acted on in some way, even if the agencies weren’t so understaffed.

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6. 
   Jespren
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 2:37 pm
   

   Having grown up and lived most of my life in a single state (Oregon) I may be misunderstanding the term ‘mandatory reporting’ as it applies to other states but…..DHS isn’t who you are supposed to report suspected crimes to. If you have information regarding illegal activies involving minors (or anyone for that matter) you call the police. DHS may get involved if there is shown to be a reason to remove someone from a home situtation, but it’s not their job to track down a 22 year old boyfriend of a 13 year old. And it’s not DHS that (those I am aware of) pro-life people are upset over PP not contacting. Mandatory reporting (as I understand it, and I have worked in child care and health care fields before) means you CALL THE POLICE when you suspect something illegal is happening. You may ALSO call DHS if something questionable within a family is happening.

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7. 
   ninek
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 2:48 pm
   

   It is the authority that decides if the report warrants an investigation.   It is not the reporter (such as me, or a receptionist) who makes that decision.   Mandatory reporting is about reporting, not investigation or prosecution.  

   It is not up to the receptionist to interpet the law. It is up to the receptionist to report SUSPECTED ABUSE. We were trained that: if CPS, for example, gets one call about suspected abuse, but doesn’t investigate it, they still record the call was made. If they get 3 or 4 calls, for example, then they will investigate even if each call doesn’t report that heinous of a suspicion. We are instructed to make the call because we cannot be sure who else may be in contact with the child (such as a teacher or even a neighbor) and may have also made a call. If I was a teen getting abused by an older man, I’d like to hope that my fate doesn’t hang on the thread of one single person who might or might not call.

   I repeat:
   It is not up to the receptionist to interpet the law. It is up to the receptionist to report SUSPECTED ABUSE.

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8. 
   MaryRose
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 4:22 pm
   

    
   I’m just worried about everything because like, well I’m going to be 14 years old in March, and my friend told me that you guys would have to tell my parents. But my boyfriend’s 22. Is that old enough to take care of it?
    
   CLINIC: No. We don’t have to — your age of — state law you’re old enough to get a termination without a parent’s consent.
   

   Nothing hypothetical there. Besides which, even in the transcript where it is hypothetical, she later clearly states that he’s 22 and her parents hate him because he’s too old for her. The PP employee had reasonable cause to suspect child abuse.

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9. 
   Janet
   

   March 21st, 2011 at 7:44 pm
   

   Wow, it t appears no one’s minding the store – not surprised.  Is there a hierarchy of reporting within PPFA from the bottom up or are they all independent entities?  Doesn’t each office document their training of each employee (employee-signed document, or the like in employee files)?  The lack of oversight on day to day operations is terribly disconcerting.  When a business is built on immoral behavior disguised as healthcare, should we expect better? Probably not. The State of IL obviously has little oversite and little motivation for change. They’ve refused to enforce parental consent law for over ten years, for goodness sake! (That law was “too taxing on the system” also.)

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10. 
    dancingcrane
    

    March 21st, 2011 at 11:09 pm
    

    What staggers me most about all this is the implication that pro-lifers don’t know our own heroes. Don’t know Mark Crutcher? I know prolifers that don’t know Bernard Nathanson became prolife. Many of us are working in isolation, without knowledge of those who came before, reinventing the wheel every half-dozen years. Our lack of cohesion works in PP’s favor. We need to be aware of each others’ efforts to work together effectively.

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11. 
    carder
    

    March 22nd, 2011 at 1:17 pm
    

    I actually remember when that whole Mark Crutcher incident came out. I heard it from Fr. Pavone’s mailings.  The reaction was nowhere near the reaction Lia et al are getting today.

    I wonder why?

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