A Cooked-Up Crisis: The Pedophile Protection Scandal

Antis make the same crank phone call 800 times and call it research

Life Dynamics started out by suing abortion doctors for malpractice, using the web to recruit clients. The Texas based lawfirm/website and prolife agit-prop organization is expanding to produce fresh urban legends for the cause. Their most recent campaign describes a supposed conspiracy: Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation Caught in Pedophile Protection Scandal. Life Dynamics says of themselves: "Life Dynamics Incorporated is the nation's leading pro-life research company."

Life Dynamics describes the methods and the results of their research project at Child Predators: A Life Dynamics Special Report. They commissioned an actress to call up hundreds of clinics, representing herself as "a 13-year-old girl who was pregnant by her 22-year-old boyfriend." LDI reports that most of the responses from the clinics were aimed at avoiding any responsibility for reporting this illegal coupling to the proper authorities. LDI concludes that abortion doctors benefit from the actions of older men who exploit very young women. LDI stands ready to sue the bad guys.

LDI issued a barrage of press releases, which provoked a range of responses from the media.

Web based news organizations on the right have been the least critical in responding to LDI's scandal story:

• Planned Parenthood concealing crimes?  May 21, 2002 - WorldNetDaily, (A Free Press For A Free People), is inclined to endorse the project uncritically.

• Abortion providers fail to report child abuse  May 21, 2002 - In the OnlineArchive.org (Christian Writers Informing The World), Gary McCullough likewise supports the project unreservedly.

• Abortionists Implicated in Alleged Rape Coverup  May 24, 2002 - Agape Press titles their article as though referring to an actual case of rape. They recite from the press release and additionally quote a few self-serving remarks from Mark Crutcher, the head of Life Dynamics.

• The Cornell Review: No Shades of Gray"  June 11, 2002 - Columnist Joseph Sabia gushes his approval of the Life Dynamics "sting operation."

Other Web based news organizations sometimes look at the story more critically.

• Abortion Foes Reveal Deceptive Tactic  March 30, 2002 - Lycos shows an AP story: "Anti-abortion activists have revealed the latest covert tactic in their running battle against abortion clinics: A woman posing as a pregnant teen has been calling clinics in hopes of drawing them into violating the law."

Print and Broadcast Media show a range of responses

• Abortion foes entice clinics to break law  May 31, 2002 - An AP story in the Ft. Worth/Dallas Star Telegram. Quotes Gloria Feldt, Planned Parenthood president: "They'll use any tactics they can."

• Connecticut Abortion Clinics Look The Other Way  May 22, 2002 - From the website of a Fox-TV affiliate in Connecticut.

• Pro-Life Group Launches Undercover Sting  May 31, 2002 - "A pro-life group in Texas has enlisted a woman to pose as a pregnant teen in a campaign designed to catch abortion clinics that might break the law."

• Lie, Distort, Harass: Anti-abortionists take aim at public schools  September 13, 2002 - Planned Parenthood Federation of America considers Life Dynamics' campaign to be "an irresponsible hoax . . . It makes broad statements, [but] that’s not what the law says. Reporting requirements … apply to only a small subset of sexually active teens."

• Anti-Choice Group Set Legal Trap for 800 Clinics  November 10, 2002 - Women's E-news correspondant Frederick Clarkson describes Life Dynamics' campaign. A Planned Parenthood spokesman points out "No one has an obligation to report or to conduct an inquisition based on a phone call, because you have no idea who is on the other end, and what the truth is. And in this case, Life Dynamics hoax caller was scrupulously careful not to give a name."

• On Target: Undercover abortion tapes   November 12, 2002 - "All clinics are required to report suspected sexual abuse, and they're required to tell a parent if a minor seeks an abortion. But are they?"

• Carolinas Planned Parenthood staffers may be sidestepping the law  The Charlotte World appears to be convinced by the "undercover tapes" that purport to show Planned Parenthood ignoring evidence of child sexual abuse.

Life Dynamics' poor record of credibility

The play's the thing, even on the abortion stage  June 1, 2002 - In a previous campaign, Life Dynamics' star witness had to admit that he had lied to a Congressional committee.

Congress Hears Testimony on Fetal Tissue: Witness's credibility damaged by pseudonymous video  March 27, 2000 - Christianity Today "But Alberty's credibility was challenged when he admitted to making false statements under the pseudonym 'Kelly' in a videotape for Life Dynamics, a prolife group."

Others jump on the bandwagon

Following Life Dynamics' lead, other opportunists are cranking out complaints.

• Pro-life Movement Applauds Kline and Gilstrap  June 19, 2003 - Operation Rescue West approves of Kansas officials who subscribe to Life Dynamics' theory of "child abuse" by abortion clinics.

• United States Justice Foundation Announces Campaign to Force Planned Parenthood to Obey State Law  July 3, 2002 - USJF ("Your Conservative Voice in the Courts") has filed a California civil suit, asserting in part that Planned Parenthood must "cease refusing to report the sexual abuse of minors by adult perpetrators."

• School districts accomplices to sex abuse?  August 28, 2002 - Life Dynamics casts its net wider -- claiming that any school district that refers a pupil to Planned Parenthood becomes liable for that pupil having been molested by an adult male.

• Priest Group Launches Anti-Sex-Ed Campaign  November 11, 2002 - "The group Priests for Life is warning public schools of potential 'legal liability' if the systems' personnel refer students to health organizations such as Planned Parenthood or permit the organizations to provide sex education."

• The Tale of the Tapes  Citizen Magazine a website of Focus on the Family, embellishes LDI's campaign with a story of their own in which an older man twice impregnates his girfriend's daughter, each time taking her for an abortion.

• Abortion feud gets new spin: Caller brings police to Lubbock clinic  October 20, 2002 - "Abortion opponents call police to report that health care professionals at abortion clinics are not reporting suspected cases of child abuse as mandated by law."

• Aborting Child Protection  October 23, 2002 - "Abortion clinics should be mandatory reporters of child abuse, just like every other health-care provider."

• The Eyewitness Campaign  Life Dynamics introduces a new project for sidewalk counselors: any protester who sees an underage woman entering a clinic can call the police to report suspected child sex abuse.

• Join Spies for Life!  "Anyone can be a Spy for Life! Just roll up your sleeves and get to work. We need any dirt that you can dig up about any abortionist, abortion clinic, clinic employee or hospital that allows abortions."

• Sex-abuse law to include abortionists?  November 2, 2002 - "DA wants providers to be required to report statutory rape cases."

• Ashcroft urged to probe Planned Parenthood  March 15, 2003 - "An online petition addressed to the Justice Department accuses Planned Parenthood-sponsored abortion clinics of hiding sexual abuse of children under the guise of a teen-age girl's purported right to privacy."

• Statutory Rape Cases Underreported: Anti-Abortionist Group Hopes Tapes Will Prove Their Claim  April 15, 2003 - In Plattsburgh, NY another bunch of antis uses the fraudulent tapes produced by Life Dynamics.

• Pro-life groups criticize clinics: They say child abuse laws are subverted  May 9, 2003 - "To prove the point, he played four tapes of calls to New Hampshire clinics recorded by Life Dynamics of Texas, which said it called 900 clinics around the country during the winter of 2002. Cable said a 22-year-old woman posed as a scared 13-year-old, who said she might be pregnant, asked for abortion information and said her sexual partner was 22."

Planned Parenthood Denies the Bogus Charges

Planned Parenthood rejects groups’ claims   May 10, 2003 - "Family planning clinics in New Hampshire on Friday strongly disputed claims by right-to-life groups that they did not follow state child-abuse reporting laws."