While I was driving home from the grocery store, I was thinking about the Planned Parenthood sex trafficking scandal. In case you haven't heard about it, you can read about it on the Live Action web site. Many people on both sides of the abortion issue would agree that what the manager of the Planned Parenthood clinic did was wrong, but I wonder what we would do if we were in her situation, or one similar to it? If you were the manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic, and a person you believed to be a real pimp came in and asked you if you would provide "health services" (including abortion and contraception) to under age girls that he is sex trafficking, how would you respond?
Obviously, your view on abortion and contraception use would affect how you would respond (I would hope). For the sake of this discussion, I'm going to assume that an abortion opponent wouldn't be in this situation, because they wouldn't take a job at a Planned Parenthood clinic. But what if you support abortion and contraception use? How would you respond? Would you:
- Politely excuse yourself from the room and call the police, and refuse to provide abortions and contraception to the girls he's trafficking?
- Politely excuse yourself from the room and call the police, and then provide abortions and contraception to the girls he's trafficking if you think they need it?
- Inform the pimp that sex trafficking is illegal and ask him to leave, but not report him to the authorities?
- Offer to provide abortions or contraception to the girls he's trafficking without informing the authorities?
- Respond in some other way?
What if the pimp really has an underage girl that got pregnant while he was trafficking her? If you choose option 1, aren't you denying her what is currently a legal medical procedure? If the pimp really has an underage girl that is pregnant, and you had the clinic give her an abortion, would you inform her parents?
I'd be interested to know what an antichoice person would do in this situation, even if they wouldn't ever actually work at a healthcare clinic.
ReplyDeleteI personally would tell the "pimp" of the legal healthcare offered to the public. Tell the "pimp" that the girls would have to come in themselves to obtain the services because of confidentiality and consent issues. I would not say anything to him about calling the authorities.
After the appointment, contact supervisors and the authorities. Hopefully some sort of contact information was obtained from the "pimp" or he said he'd bring the girls in at some point. The police can then be there when that happens. The girls should absolutely be provided with the healthcare they need. Being a victim of sex trafficking doesn't prevent you from needed pap smears and STD testing.
What would you do?
Christian Prochoicer - Thanks for responding. I don't know what an antichoice person would do in this situation, but I can tell you what I, as a pro-life person would do. As a pro-life person, I would never work at a Planned Parenthood clinic, but if I did, this is what I'd do:
ReplyDelete1. Like you, I would tell the pimp that the girls would have to come in themselves to obtain the "services".
2. Like you, I would contact my supervisor and the authorities to report him. I would hope that the authorities would do some under cover work to determine who all the sex slaves are so they can free all of them.
3. If any of the girls came to the clinic for an abortion or contraceptives, I would refer them to the nearest crisis pregnancy center for counseling and referral to medical treatment.
4. I would do like Abby Johnson and submit my resignation to Planned Parenthood, because I couldn't continue to work for an organization that considers the killing of innocent unborn babies and the physical and psychological maiming of women via abortion as "health care".
I've asked myself the same question, and I'm also wondering this: Did Live Action do any follow-up work to see whether or not any of the Planned Parenthood employees contacted the authorities? Or would there be any way to find out this information?
ReplyDeleteSharon, it sounds like Planned Parenthood did report the incident to the FBI, but only after they realized that the sting operation was going on at more than one of their facilities. More information on Jill Stanek's blog here: http://www.jillstanek.com/2011/02/planned-parenthood-response-to-sex-trafficking-sting-shows-institutional-corruption-at-highest-levels/
ReplyDelete