After viewing the recent undercover videos released by the Journalist group: Live Action, exposing how Planned Parenthood covers for pimps who traffic in underage girls, an advocate for education on Human Trafficking had this scathing statement.
Dottie Laster has spent nearly a decade fighting daily in efforts to educate citizens and governmental agencies, has a Radio Show, “TRAFFICKED,” which is devoted to issues surrounding the victims of sex-trafficking, and tirelessly works with the victims to be able to restore their lives once the cycle of abuse has been stopped.
Here is the statement she gave on the Planned Parenthood scandal:
“No matter what your opinions on abortion are, in the United States we have strict laws, regulations, procedures and ethics that protect children from being sold in commercial sex. As a scholar of sociology, I have observed that it is not uncommon for organizations which are established to protect freedoms and rights grow, expand and develop into groups that fail to protect the individuals they were formed to serve. Daily, I see instances of law-enforcement, non- profit organizations, legal systems and others fail victims of human-trafficking. Precious windows of opportunity for escape lost or perhaps even worse, the organizations assist the traffickers whether knowingly or not.
After viewing the Planned Parenthood video my first thoughts were of the victims I have served over the last 8 years. Specifically the women and girls — their horrendous statements of rape, gang rapes, torture, branding, starvation, extortions, assault and their reports of repeated forced abortions and miscarriages due to the trauma they received. I have often wondered where these multiple abortions took place and how medical professionals had not seen the extensive trauma to their bodies, spirits and souls.
In this film the apathy for the victims from the Planned Parenthood manager is not uncommon. Her willingness to be helpful to the pimp about how to work the system and receive services to provide birth control, STD testing, and abortions to children in commercial sex was unfortunately was robotic in the face of atrocity. I hope she truly had no idea of the hell on earth that the victims of sex-trafficking endure and how her instructions to keep the children quiet, send them with a biased interpreter and to
avoid contact with the unpopular clinician who would be strict about sexually active youth. I trust she did not know how these instructions would affect the victims’ lives, human rights/civil liberties, and limit their futures. In addition I must hold hope she was not thinking of the families that loved the immigrant children she spoke of who would be devastated to learn what was being planned for their children in the United States.
We have societal myths surrounding the combination of sex and money which blind and fog the minds of people who could have helped the victims and prosecuted the traffickers. A recent example is Lawrence Taylor ‘s deal of no jail time after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors due to buying sex with a minor who he admittedly paid a pimp for sex acts with even though she had a black eye and had clearly been recently beaten and was only 16. There was also a case in Texas, where a 13 year old who was arrested for prostitution and the county prosecutor prosecuted her all the way to the Texas Supreme Court- Her 32 year old “boyfriend’ was never questioned. She had received two abortions before the age of 13 while under his supervision and she was mentally deficient, yet she endured only punishment from our justice system. One of my clients, was arrested at 16, for being in the US illegally due to the trafficking, after undergoing eight to nine abortions and one birth which resulted in death of the infant two days later; a child victim alleged her experience at a hospital where she went to ask for help due to the pain and trauma associated with being prostituted – she asked the doctor wrote a note to her pimp saying she should not have sex for a week and was sent back to him- just as the woman in the film suggested the pimp told her to make money above the waist.
I so wish people would not be seduced and their perspective fogged when they see adults putting children in commercial sex. All children in commercial sex are victims of trafficking according to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and anyone who attempted or intended to participate/facilitate human trafficking activities could face prosecution under the TVPA-whether they completed the crime or not.
I hope that this organization and the individuals who assisted this pseudo- pimp will use this opportunity to train their staff about the laws and protections surrounding children in forced labor, the criminal penalties for anyone who assists in prosecuting children such as prostituting a minor 14 or under which could result in a federal life sentence. They could learn that commercial sex is anything exchanged of value for stripping, pornography or prostitution and learn how to identify victims of trafficking both children and adults and the procedures to effectively assist them.
No matter what medical procedure a person requests their right to privacy must be maintained through HIPPA laws and should not be shared with any pimp or trafficker- and any immigrant minor in the United States who is not accompanied by a parent or guardian must be protected and custody established. I see many training opportunities brought to light due to this video for Planned Parenthood and any organization who serves marginalized populations. The TVPA also has a clause that states any government contractor whose employees or sub- contractors or their dependents engage in human trafficking activities may lose all government funding. So I urge all organizations to address their policies and procedures immediately. The first effective action that any group can do is to recognize that ANY MINOR IN COMMERCIAL SEX IS A VICTIM OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING and that anyone putting a minor in stripping, pornography or prostitution is a trafficker- and should be treated as a criminal.
I hope in the future a film like this would demonstrate a staff displaying a fierce urgency to protect victims and children from forced labor and commercial sex.”
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