In its summary, analysts described how one researcher portrayed a 13-year-old girl made pregnant by a 22-year-old boyfriend. The teen-girl imposter telephoned over 800 Planned Parenthood and NAF facilities across the country.

"Her story was that she wanted an abortion because she and her boyfriend did not want her parents to find out about the sexual relationship," the summary stated.

In every instance, the group said, the ages of the girl and her boyfriend "were made perfectly clear" to clinic workers. "It was also made clear," said the summary, "that the motivation for the abortion was to conceal this illicit sexual activity from the girl's parents and the authorities."

Among the findings:


Many clinic workers openly acknowledged that the aforementioned situation was illegal and that they were required to report it, but an "overwhelming majority readily agreed" to keep secret the illegal sexual contact;

Some employees coached the caller on ways to avoid detection, how to circumvent parental involvement laws and what to say or not say when she visited the clinic;

In a "significant" number of cases, the Life Dynamics caller was encouraged to lie about her age, or conceal her age and her boyfriend's age, or to give a false name;

One clinic official told the caller she was required by state law to inform a parent of the abortion, but went on to advise the caller to simply use a fictitious address when checking in;

In many instances, abortion clinic employees advised the caller that if "someone were to find out about this situation," the boyfriend could go to jail, leading Life Dynamics researchers to conclude that "in those situations, it was unmistakable that our caller was being instructed to be more careful about what information she gave out and to whom";

Researchers said it was "not uncommon" for clinic employees to interrupt the caller "when she started talking about her age or the age of her boyfriend";

In other cases, clinic employees would advise the caller she had already provided too much information for them to help her, but would give her "the number of another family planning facility" and encourage her "to tell a different story when she called," advice which, at times, "was quite specific. …";

In states with parental involvement laws in place and in which only a judge could give permission to have the abortion without parental involvement, the caller "was often … instructed not to voluntarily tell the judge about the age of her boyfriend. …" In similar instances, the caller was even encouraged to lie to a judge about the age of her boyfriend;

Other clinics in states with parental involvement laws advised the caller to seek her abortion in a neighboring state with no such legislation in place. "In other words," the report stated, "these people were suggesting to a minor girl that she travel outside the state in order to cover up a crime that was being committed against her. …";

In other cases, the caller was advised on how to circumvent the parental involvement requirement altogether, by having her bring along someone older and who looked like he could be a parent so he could sign for her instead;

In a number of cases, the report said, "the [clinic] employee would not react at all to the age issue," causing researchers to "question whether it had registered with them or not";

One clinic worker told the caller "if she came in with the cash, she could be any age she wanted to be"; and

In many cases, clinic workers said the caller could come to the clinic with her adult boyfriend to pick up birth control, meaning that "even though [clinics] had evidence that a sexual crime was being committed against a 13-year-old child, they were not only willing to conspire with the perpetrator to cover it up, but they offered to provide him the means by which he could continue the abuse."
"In the final analysis," said the summary report, "virtually every Planned Parenthood and NAF facility we contacted was willing to illegally conceal the sexual abuse of this 13-year-old girl. In every case, the clinic representative had never met this child, knew virtually nothing about her, had only engaged in a very brief telephone conversation with her, and was told nothing to indicate that her parents would be abusive if they discovered the sexual relationship.

"Nevertheless, they were willing – and in many cases, eager – to help this child hide from her parents and the authorities the fact that she was being sexually exploited," said the summary. "To that end, they provided step-by-step instructions on how to circumvent state laws that were enacted specifically for the purpose of protecting children exactly like her in situations just like this."

Gregoire also signed into law a bill that prohibits abstinence-only lessons at public schools offering sex education.

Under the measure, schools that choose to provide sex education would be required to discuss abstinence with students, but could not teach abstinence without also instructing students about other aspects of sexuality, including the use of contraceptives.

The Bush administration is cutting off funding for abstinence-only sex education in Washington because this state now requires schools to provide additional, medically accurate information about preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Up until this year, the state has received an annual $800,000 federal grant for abstinence-only sex education. The money was used to produce and air public service announcements as well as developing abstinence-only curriculums for schools.