A thirteen-year-old girl — let's call her Karen — was an ordinary youngster who enjoyed playing soccer. But her life took an ugly turn when her soccer coach seduced her and got her pregnant. Without the knowledge of Karen's parents, the coach took Karen to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ohio and paid for her abortion. Planned Parenthood staffers asked no questions, despite the fact that Karen was scarcely out of childhood.
The coach was later convicted of sexual battery and sent to prison. But as Americans United for Life recently observed, the story is indicative of how willing Planned Parenthood clinics are “to be perfect partners to those who wish to sexually abuse and exploit young girls.”
Americans United for Life recently published a report titled “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood.” It details the horror stories that have exploded in the news in recent years: Planned Parenthood employees assisting pimps and sex traffickers; misleading women about the dangers of abortion; refusing to comply with parental notification laws; and misusing millions in taxpayer dollars.
Worst of all is the evidence that Planned Parenthood fails to report child sex abuse. Instead, as Americans United for Life notes, Planned Parenthood clinics “advise minors and their abusers on how to circumvent the mandatory reporting laws”; that is why Americans United for Life uses the term “the perfect partners,” as Planned Parenthood works with those who are actually using and exploiting “young girls.”
Americans United for Life recommends that Congress conduct a full-scale investigation of the abortion giant. I agree — it's long overdue. But we should also ask ourselves why Planned Parenthood has become such a negative force. Well, it all comes down to worldview.
The modern, secular view promotes the idea of total sexual autonomy even for young girls — that they have a right to sexual activity — and should be encouraged to engage in sex as soon as they feel “ready,” regardless of their age and marital status. This view says even the youngest girls ought to be allowed to undergo treatment for sexually transmitted disease (STDs) and even have abortions without their parents' knowledge.
By contrast, the biblical view teaches that sex should be reserved for marriage, and that young girls need to be protected from those who would exploit their innocence. This is why the ancient Israelites carefully protected young, unmarried women, encouraging modesty of dress and behavior.
They knew that without this protection, unscrupulous men would take advantage of them. The same protections were built into did virtually every other culture — protections that have been stripped away during the last half century of sexual liberation.
The question is: Which view lines up more closely with reality? Millions of abortions and out-of-wedlock births, one in every four teens infected with an STD, teens lured into forced prostitution, these provide the sobering answer. Young girls need protection from those who would exploit them.
So yes, ask your lawmakers to investigate Planned Parenthood. But we should also teach our children the worldview lesson behind the tragic exploitation of our nation's daughters — first by men, and then by the profit-seeking women of Planned Parenthood.
Chuck Colson's daily BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
Publication date: August 30, 2011.