Illinois Now Requires Abortion Ctrs to Report Statutory Rape

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 11, 2011   |   1:33PM   |   Springfield, IL

The state of Illinois now requires abortion centers to join legitimate medical facilities in reporting cases of statutory rape to authorities in order for young girls to be protected. That’s something Planned Parenthood opposed.

Rep. David Reis, a Republican, introduced the measure and he talked about its importance in a new interview with the Carmi Times. The law expanded the definition of who is a “mandatory reporter” of suspected sexual abuse to include everyone inside an abortion clinic – not just the abortion practitioner and nurse.

“No one can turn a blind eye to a child who is being abused,” he said. “Under the new law, volunteers to medical professionals working in an abortion clinic or office will be informed of child abuse reporting laws and know what steps to take if child neglect is suspected.”

“The new law addresses a scenario where a staff worker at a clinic offering contraceptives suspects child abuse and fails to act,” said Reis. “This kind of silence perpetuates the vicious cycle of violence against innocent children.”

Reis said the law came in response to undercover investigations showing, in New Jersey and other states, staff at Planned Parenthood abortion centers failing to report to authorities that they arranged abortions for undercover investigators posing at operators of a sex trafficking ring involving minor girls.

“The new law is an attempt to ensure what happened in New Jersey will not happen in Illinois,” Reis said.

The Illinois legislature passed the bill unanimously despite opposition from Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates in Illinois. Planned Parenthood opposed the measure and Planned Parenthood’s website includes the following statement in a form letter their supporters can send to legislators making it clear they are more concerned about overburdening government than protecting minor girls:

HB 2093 requires office staff and volunteers of organizations that provide reproductive health care or sex education to be mandated reporters of child abuse. All doctors, nurses and teachers are already mandated reporters. Therefore, these organizations are already legally required to make reports. This bill creates redundant regulations that have the potential to overload the Department of Children and Family Services.

Recently, the abortion business attempted to downplay its opposition by removing the language about the reporting to have the potential to overload the abortion business. The pro-life group Live Action noticed this and saved a screen shot of the older version of the web site showing the reason for it opposing the common-sense bill. The action makes it appear many underage girls are getting abortions at Planned Parenthood who are victims of statutory rape since Planned Parenthood originally indicated state officials would be overwhelmed about calls if abortion center staff were required to report each and every incident.

After initially opposing the bill, the Illinois Choice Action Team changed course in an email to supporters, saying, “In response to comments, feedback, and our own concerns regarding bill 2093, we at the Illinois Choice Action Team have removed our name from the Reproductive Health and Access Act coalition of opposing organizations for Illinois House bill 2093. We understand the bill context however, when it comes to the issue of reporting child abuse we would rather any case seen be reported and so we are withdrawing our name.”

However, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU still opposed the measure.

Americans United for Life Vice President of Government Affairs Dan McConchie has been coordinating the effort in several states to protect children from those who prey on them and he talked about the opposition from pro-abortion groups to the mandatory reporting bill.

“It’s hard to image anything worse than not reporting suspected sexual abuse of minors. But arguing that the government might get overloaded with requests to protect our kids is just incredible. Government should be about the business of keeping children safe from predators,” he said.

Planned Parenthood has a history of covering up cases of sexual abuse in various states such as Wisconsin, California, Indiana, Arizona, Tennessee, and Alabama.