In our last posting we strongly criticized Idaho’s “corporate media” for failing to pick up on an important story from Byran Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance. That criticism is more than justified – but it is not deserved in the case of KIDO’s Doug McConaughey. He conducted an on-air interview with ICL’s David Ripley on Saturday morning about Planned Parenthood’s role in protecting sexual predators.

Granted, the hour was early – but it was still a respectful and important exploration of a crucial issue. In fact, it may be the first such public discussion in Idaho.

For years we have run across tell-tale evidence strongly suggesting that Planned Parenthood has adopted a policy of ignoring evidence of sexual abuse when dealing with teenage girls – the not-famous-enough “Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell” policy used by PP affiliates across the country. Some law enforcement officials over the years have taken note of the strange gaps in the data between the number of sexually active girls and reports coming from Planned Parenthood to law enforcement. Officials in Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, California and Ohio have conducted investigations. The Abortion Lobby has fought them tooth-and-claw under the guise of “protecting the privacy” of girls – i.e., the victim. (We've often speculated that the Abortion Lobby views these victimized girls as just so much "collateral damage" in their war to establish abortion rights in America, but surely some employees are deeply troubled by the industry's role in facilitating the abuse of teenage girls).

The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare reports on its website that 1-in-4 Idaho girls can expect to be the victim of sexual abuse by the time they reach 18.

Here is part of the reason so many victimizations occur:

The Guttmacher Institute estimates that some 12,000 Idaho girls were receiving “Family Planning Services” from Planned Parenthood and other agencies in 2005. How many of these girls were being victimized by a predator? Manipulated or coerced into getting birth control or abortion so that the abuse could continue?

Our estimate is that less than 600 reports of teenage sexual abuse were filed in 2005; that is only 5% of cases encountered by Planned Parenthood and their cohorts. Most disturbing, less than 60 of those reports were filed by ‘medical personnel’.

Those figures may give you a better idea as to why we are so concerned to learn that Boise Planned Parenthood has given safe harbor to a staffer from Ohio who is accused of enforcing a “Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell” policy when subordinates encountered evidence of incest or other sexual abuse.

We applaud McConaughey for the courage to use his public forum as a vehicle to educate the public about the serious potential threat to Idaho’s daughters. But our criticism of his media pals at the Statesman, KTVB, Press Tribune and the rest stands.

More than ironically, when visiting that same Idaho Health & Welfare website, we ran across this admonition:

Perhaps the editors at the Statesman should ponder these words and their role in protecting Planned Parenthood from public accountability.