Virginia AG relaxes requirements for reporting child abuse

Virginia state law doesn’t require health care providers to report cases of 14-year-old girls who get pregnant, unless evidence points to parental or guardian abuse or neglect, Attorney General Mark Herring said in a September opinion issued to the state health commissioner.

Although state law defines sexual relations with anyone under 15 as a felony, Herring determined another law that defines an “abused or neglected child” only addresses abuse from parents or guardians. The opinion releases employees at both abortion facilities and the state health department from the responsibility of reporting suspected child abuse, according to the pro-life Family Foundation.

Health Commissioner Marissa Levine requested the opinion after the Family Foundation publicized the Roanoke Medical Center for Women’s failure to report three abortions performed on 14 year olds, said Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation. Virginia’s law qualifies the girls as victims of rape due to their age, Cobb maintained. But under Herring’s interpretation, an inspector at the abortion facility wouldn’t need to report the rape unless he had reason to suspect a parent or guardian was responsible.

“It’s unfortunate that we have an attorney general [who will] cover for the abortion industry … and put children at risk,” Cobb said.

In his recently published opinion, Herring overruled two previous attorney general opinions. The 2001 Robertson Opinion concluded teachers bear a responsibility to report suspected sexual abuse regardless of who might have committed the act. Similarly, the 2003 Marshall Opinion required medical personnel to report statutory rape when a child revealed the abuse in conversation. According to Herring, the opinions are “inconsistent with long-standing rules of statutory construction and interpretation.” Parents or guardians must commit the sexual abuse under the state’s definition of “an abused or neglected child,” according to Herring.

If medical professionals don’t report suspected abuse regardless of the perpetrator, then the possibility of discovering sexual abuses like human trafficking and pedophilia becomes much lower, Cobb said. Unless suspected abuse is reported, law enforcement won’t be able to determine whether abuse has occurred. “A situation of sex trafficking doesn’t fit under his opinion,” she said.

This year, two abortion facilities in Arizona and Colorado came under fire for failing to report sexual abuse. In April, authorities arrested an 18-year-old man from Arizona accused of raping or molesting at least 18 girls during a three-year period. Although one mother told a Planned Parenthood employee in December that her daughter had been abused, the employee classified the sexual encounter as consensual.

In July, a Colorado woman sued an abortion facility and four employees for allegedly failing to report her 13-year-old daughter’s rape. The teen had been verbally and sexually abused by her step-father, Tim Smith, for seven years, according to the complaint. When she became pregnant in April 2012, Smith took her to the abortion facility where, despite opportunities to determine potential abuse, employees never reported suspected rape. The abuse continued for two more months before the girl told her mother. Smith is serving jail time for the crime.

Despite Herring’s opinion, local prosecutors have said they will use more stringent guidelines for reporting abuse, Cobb said. Levine also admitted in a board of health meeting that the department had a “moral and ethical obligation” to go beyond what Herring’s opinion requires.

“I think she, despite his opinion, will do the right thing,” Cobb said.

The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.