Arizona Rape Not Reported: Planned Parenthood Gave Cover For Serial Rapist To Continue

Because of Planned Parenthood’s failure to report a rape of an underage girl getting an abortion, her rapist was given cover to continue his rape spree. Had they followed Arizona’s legal requirement of mandatory reporting, the 18-year-old serial rapist might have been caught before violating some of his other victims. As of this report, Tyler Kost stands accused of sexually assaulting at least 18 girls, ages 13 to 17, over a three-year period. According to the newest information, he could have, and should have, been stopped.

According to the Casa Grand Dispatch, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office reports that a Planned Parenthood counselor allegedly intentionally kept quiet about the rape when a 15-year-old victim of Kost came in for an abortion.

The young lady was attacked and raped by Tyler Kost in a park after a homecoming dance, according to a police report. When a car passed by and started the perpetrator, she was able to escape and run away. She later learned that she was pregnant and confronted Kost, who vowed to smear her reputation. On New Year’s Eve, she went with her mother to the Planned Parenthood facility to have an abortion.

During the appointment, the girl’s mother told the counselor about the rape. At that point, according to Arizona state law, the rape should have been reported to law enforcement. But that is not what happened. According to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office report:

“The counselor intentionally miscoded the assault as a consensual encounter. The counselor told them that they did not want the hassle of having to report the assault to law enforcement as they were a mandatory reporter.”

A number of the assaults and rapes by Tyler Kost reportedly occurred after that point in time. How many of his rape victims could have been spared if the Planned Parenthood counselor had done what is required by law? Instead, their negligence allowed Kost’s rape spree to continue unchecked, until his arrest in late April.

One of his rape victims was hospitalized for attempted suicide and two moved out of state. Several report their lives or the lives of family members being threatened if they told anyone of the rapes, including threats of being shot in the head. His victims were afraid of him.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona denies any complicity in the rapes, and wrote in a prepared statement: “All patients are asked at least two separate times whether they consented to sexual activity; if a patient says she was sexually assaulted or displays signs of assault, our staff is required to report it immediately to law enforcement officials. We have zero tolerance for staff failing to meet our standards and policies.”

However, this is not the first time that Planned Parenthood of Arizona stands accused of intentionally withholding information about rape from law enforcement. According to Live Action News, an undercover investigation revealed similar responses to the one which enabled Kost to keep on raping.

UCLA student Lila Rose and her friend Jackie Stollar videotaped an encounter in an Arizona Planned Parenthood clinic. In the video, Rose can be heard telling the nurse that Stollar, who posed as a 15-year-old, is pregnant, and that her boyfriend is 27. “The nurse disregards the age difference and even cautions Stollar not to bring her ‘boyfriend’ before the judicial hearing required in Arizona to waive parental consent for an abortion.”

After several of such video encounters in which rapes were confided were released in 2009, PP reportedly decided to conduct “an internal review.” According to Jill Stanek, “it obviously cleared itself.”

Prior to that, a 23-year-old man brought his 13-year-old foster sister to the abortion provider in Phoenix for an abortion. Because they again did not report the abuse, which was clearly statutory rape at the least, the molestation of the child was allowed to continue, leading to another abortion just six months later. In 2002, an Arizona judge found the clinic negligent for failure to report sexual abuse.

One accusation of pro-life or anti-abortion leaders has been that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers enable rapists, child molesters, and other abusers to continue their crimes against women and girls. The concept of “choice” is thrown out the window when people like Tyler Kost are given cover to keep on violating their victims. They are required to report rape and suspected sexual abuse. When they intentionally miscode records and lie for rapists, it seems clear that women’s rights and women’s choice may not actually be their true agenda. What do you think?