The Biden administration conveniently turned a blind eye to the statutory rape laws of all 50 states when it directed women to AbortionFinder.org, a network that connects women, including young girls, with abortion centers and encourages them to abort their babies without their parent’s knowledge.
Any pregnant girl under the age of 16 is more than likely pregnant as a result of a sexual abuse. Thirty-four states set the age of consent at 16; the rest of the states hold the age of consent at 17 (six states) or 18 (11 states). Intercourse with a minor under the age of consent is automatically considered statutory rape in some states, while other states consider the age of the perpetrator or the age difference between the perpetrator and the victim.
But the Biden administration doesn’t care that pregnant minors have likely been abused nor does it care if parents know their daughters are the victims of sex crimes. Instead, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services are promoting a website to girls that guides them to hide their pregnancies, and subsequently their abuse, from their parents.
On June 25, the White House and HHS advertised Abortion Finder in a flier about knowing women’s reproductive “rights.” Abortion Finder’s search engine finds women abortion facilities near them after only three required inputs—their location, date of last period, and age. The age options to select range from “18 or older,” “17,” “16,” to “15 or younger.”
Through Abortion Finder, the White House promoted not only abortion services but that girls conceal their pregnancies from their parents. The website links to a helpline for a judicial bypass which helps minors undergo abortion procedures without their parents’ consent or even knowledge.
Guiding girls to a means of concealing their pregnancies and abortions from their parents not only isolates young girls emotionally, but it cuts them off from their support system and from those who are best suited to notice evidence of a crime and provide them care they need.
In preventing parents from protecting their children, the White House is saying it doesn’t matter who impregnated someone’s 14-year-old daughter as long as the girl has an abortion facility she can go to without her family having to know.
The Biden administration’s endorsement of a website that encourages girls to conceal potential sexual abuse from their parents is an active condonation of a crime. A parent’s first role is to protect his or her child, and not only is the White House hamstringing a parent’s protection, it is promoting the covering up of a felony.
Girls who are too young to legally consent to sex should not in any way be given a choice to end their babies’ lives. Further, sexually exploited girls are not a pawn to be used by pro-abortion politicians in their war on babies and families.
Beth Whitehead is an intern at The Federalist and a journalism major at Patrick Henry College where she fondly excuses the excess amount of coffee she drinks as an occupational hazard.