The Idaho Values Alliance issued a press release earlier this week, raising serious questions about a Planned Parenthood staffer who transferred here after being accused of covering up the sexual abuse of a teenage girl in Ohio.

Ms. Julia Piercey serves as the Director of Education & Training for Boise Planned Parenthood.

She used to have the same job in Ohio until she was named as a defendant in a civil suit for failing the abuse of a 16 year old girl at the hands of her father.

Attorneys for the girl presented a note to Ohio staffers, written in the hand of Ms. Piercey, informing them that the Planned Parenthood had adopted a policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” when confronted with girls seeking abortion or contraceptive services. This note serves as prima facie evidence that Planned Parenthood of Ohio willfully determined to violate Ohio Law – which requires medical personnel to report suspected cases of abuse to law enforcement.

In his Monday press release, Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of IVA, observed “Ms. Piercey evidently teaches Planned Parenthood staff to operate like this with young, pregnant, teenage girls: ‘We won’t ask if you if you’ve been sexually abused by an older male, we hope you won’t tell us if you have, and even if you do, we will do our best to find a way to cover it up.”

Pastor Fischer called on the media and public to demand an accounting from Planned Parenthood of Idaho: Is Ms. Piercey still training staff to cover up the abuse of teenage girls?

But his plea for protection and accountability went ignored by the state’s major media.

Perhaps they had bigger stories; after all, what are a few dozen, or few hundred, victimized girls?

But, more likely, the big TV and newspaper outlets simply don’t want to further damage the reputation of Planned Parenthood. (Don’t forget the fact that the Statesman is a big donor to Planned Parenthood of Idaho).

This brewing scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. All across the country, Planned Parenthood operates largely outside of the law which applies to others. And they are almost never brought to account.

Long before Ms. Piercey arrived in Idaho, there was strong evidence to believe that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers were systematically avoiding their responsibilities under Idaho’s Child Protective Act (IC 16-1619) to report the sexual abuse of Idaho girls.

Research we began several years found a disturbing discrepancy between known cases of teenage pregnancy/abortions and reported cases of teenage girl sexual abuse. In 2000, for example, there were 822 pregnancies among Idaho girls under 17; yet only 106 cases of suspected sexual abuse were reported to Idaho law enforcement. Even more disturbing, we estimated that only 7 of those reports came from medical personnel. (And these figures don't even begin to touch the number of girls being preyed upon by an adult male, but who did not become pregnant due to contraceptives provided without question by Planned Parenthood).


Granted, these figures are only estimates – the shroud of “privacy” around abortion makes it very difficult for an organization like ours to get to the truth. Officials like Attorney General Lawrence Wasden would have to find the will to use their power to subpoena records and demand accountability from the “missionaries of misery” at Planned Parenthood.

But we DO know from numerous national studies that a large proportion of teenage pregnancies are the result of older sexual predators.

At this point, we can only wonder how long Idaho’s media will serve as co-conspirators in the widespread victimization of Idaho’s vulnerable teenage girls.