Abortion Facilitates Sex Abuse: Documentation

Posted on November 16, 2021 By Rachel MacNair

by Rachel MacNair

I recently wrote this item for our newsletter, Peace and Life Connections:

Rachel Maddow had an October 12, 2021 segment where she said, “One provider in Houston spoke of a 12-year-old patient who came in with her mother . . . The 12-year-old said, mom it was an accident, why are they making me keep it? She is 12.”

Twelve-year-olds don’t become pregnant by accident. While it’s possible she was impregnated by a boy near her own age, which is legal, more likely it was an adult pedophile who exploited her, which is statutory rape – a felony.

Why is this not being investigated? How do we stop such crimes if the only concern raised ignores the crime entirely?

This is another case where a focus on the availability of abortion leaves people oblivious to such glaring alarm bells.

Rachel Maddow

In addition to the 12-year-old that Rachel Maddow cites, there’s documentation of more real-life experience. Below I offer a sampling of cases that made it to court. Given the nature of the problem, instances where the abuse never comes to light are probably far more frequent than those where it does. And when it does, it only makes it to court a small portion of the time.

My notes are in italics.

Colorado – Smith

Smith v. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Case Number: 2014CV31778

Excerpt from Amended Complaint, Summary of the Case:

This case seeks economic and non-economic damages arising from the Defendants’ multiple failures to inquire about how a thirteen-year-old girl became pregnant, or what her relationship was to the adult man who brought her to the Defendants for an abortion, despite numerous opportunities to speak to the girl alone; their failures to report known or suspected sexual abuse despite numerous indications that the man had sexually abused the girl; and administration of a long-term and undetectable form of birth control to the girl despite her fear of needles, all of which enabled the man to continue his years of sexual abuse of the girl without discovery or consequence.

In July of 2012, the adult man was charged with two counts of felony sexual abuse and, in January of 2013, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Ohio – Roe

Roe v. Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, 122 Ohio St.3d 399, 2009-Ohio-2973.

Excerpt from the Complaint:

In the fall of 2003, Jane engaged in a sexual relationship with her 21-year-old soccer coach, John Haller. At the time, Jane was 13 and in the eighth grade. The sexual relationship continued through 2004, and in March of that year, Jane discovered that she was pregnant.

Jane told Haller. Haller convinced Jane to have an abortion . . . Haller called Jane and told her to schedule the abortion. And he also instructed her that if she was asked to provide a parental telephone number, she should give Planned Parenthood his cell-phone number in lieu of her father’s phone number.

After the abortion, a Depo-Provera shot was administered to Jane, and she was given condoms. Haller and Jane resumed their sexual relationship. But within three days of the abortion, Haller ended the relationship. After the breakup, Jane and Haller’s sister, also a classmate of Jane’s, had an argument about Haller and his relationship with Jane. A teacher overheard the argument, including the references to Jane’s sexual relationship with Haller, and reported the suspected sexual abuse to the police.

After a criminal investigation, Haller was convicted of seven counts of sexual battery. . . .

Washington – Savanah

State of Washington v. Savanah, No. 74924-2-1

Excerpt from appeals document:

After Savanah’s daughter, R, disclosed that she had been sexually abused, the State charged Savanah with four domestic violence sex offenses. At trial, R testified at length to the abuse. R stated that Savanah raped her for the first time when she was 14 years old. She recounted sexual abuse that continued for the next seven years.

R testified that she became pregnant three times, when she was 14, 16, and 17 years old. In each case, Savanah took her to Planned Parenthood for an abortion. Records from Planned Parenthood confirmed that Savanah took R to the clinics for the procedures.

Washington, D.C. – Butler

Butler v. Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Case NO. 1:08-CV_00231. Filed February 12, 2008; Settled March 16, 2009

The petition states that plaintiff was 13 years old and became pregnant due to a rape; her mother took her in for the abortion. There’s no indication in the petition that the Planned Parenthood staff collected evidence to help identify the rapist with DNA, and no further information on whether he was ever charged.

Excerpt from Complaint:

That within twenty-four (24) hours of her discharge from Defendant’s facility after the termination procedure, the minor Plaintiff . . . became very ill.

That on or about September 8, 2006, the minor Plaintiff . . . presented to the emergency room at Civista Medical Center with severe abdominal pain and peritonitis.

That a CT scan of the minor Plaintiff’s abdomen on September 8, 2006, showed a significant amount of bleeding in the abdomen with free air. Consequently, the minor Plaintiff underwent immediate emergency surgery to evacuate the large abdominal bleeding the day after the termination procedure performed by Defendant . . .

That during the surgery on September 8, 2006, it was discovered, intra-operatively, that the minor Plaintiff . . . had suffered the following injuries as a direct and proximate result of the termination procedure performed by Defendant . . . :

severe abdominal bleeding;
severe vaginal injury;
severe injury to the cervix;
significant uterine perforation; and
a small bowel tear.

That a significant portion of the fetus that was allegedly removed from the minor Plaintiff . . . during the pregnancy termination performed by Defendant, was also found inside the minor Plaintiff’s abdomen on September 8, 2006.

That the minor Plaintiff . . . is now infertile for the rest of her life due to the injuries sustained.

Conclusion

The first three cases show how abortion covers up the crimes and allows them to continue being committed. The fourth involved no cover-up, but shows that abortion isn’t just a simple solution to a victim’s problem.

Proponents of abortion availability need to come to grips with this. Offering instances of those under the age of consent – children too young to do the tasks of motherhood well – as an argument for abortion means ignoring the grim reality that their becoming victims of sex abuse, and therefore impregnated, becomes far more likely when abortion is readily available. Abortion facilitates the crime.

And treating abortion as the solution to the problem, without even bringing up the idea that the crime should be prevented, obviously facilitates the crime even more.

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For more of our posts on abortion’s relationship to sex abuse, see:

The Message of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”: Abortion Gets Sexual Predators Off the Hook

How Abortion is Useful for Rape Culture