Trafficking survivor says her trafficker ‘took all his girls to Planned Parenthood’

 By Nancy Flanders - Posted at LiveAction:

"Despite the frequency of their visits, the survivors didn’t receive actual help from Planned Parenthood to escape their traffickers."

According to at least three studies, Planned Parenthood is one of the most common clinical settings to which sex traffickers bring their victims. Traffickers take the women and girls they abuse to Planned Parenthood because, according to the survivors, Planned Parenthood does not ask questions.

Research published in 2014 by the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy found that survivors of human trafficking have “had significant contact with clinical treatment facilities, most commonly Planned Parenthood clinics.” Another study from 2017, “Identifying Health Experiences of Domestically Sex-Trafficked Women in the USA: A Qualitative Study in Rikers Island Jail,” found that “[e]mergency departments, Planned Parenthoods, and jails were common care sites.” And “Sex Trafficking Victims at Their Junction with the Healthcare Setting—A Mixed-Methods Inquiry,” published in 2019, found that the “most commonly visited community healthcare clinic is Planned Parenthood….”

Planned Parenthood is a favorite of sex traffickers

In “The Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking and Their Implications for Identifying Victims in Healthcare Facilities,” researchers found that almost a third (29.6%) of human sex trafficking survivors had visited a Planned Parenthood affiliate. Former senior advisor for trafficking in persons for the U.S. Department of State, Laura J. Lederer explained, “Since pimps and traffickers generally exercise nearly complete control of their victims, these points of contact with healthcare represent rare opportunities for victim identification and intervention.”

Researchers behind “Sex Trafficking Victims at Their Junction with the Healthcare Setting—A Mixed-Methods Inquiry,” published in the Journal of Human Trafficking said that the majority of women who participated in the study visited two types of traditional healthcare settings while being trafficked — emergency departments (76,2%) and community clinics (71.4%). “Among those who used community clinics, all but one visited a Planned Parenthood clinic,” states the study. (emphasis added) Those surveyed said that Planned Parenthood was the facility of choice because it was “familiar and helpful” and primarily because it offered “free-of-charge services.” In other words, sex traffickers take their victims to Planned Parenthood because it is “free” and “helpful.”

These “rare opportunities” to intervene and save women and girls from their abusers and traffickers appear to be largely ignored by Planned Parenthood as trafficking survivors themselves have alluded to.

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