On May 24th, just a few weeks ago, 19 year-old Courtney Marie Delano, six months pregnant, was shot dead. The following day police arrested Delano’s 26 year-old boyfriend for the killing. The alleged murderer, Rollon Marko, was released from jail on a previous domestic battery charge three days before the killing. Courtney, who originally sought the battery charges due to Marko’s brutality, sought his release. This, unfortunately, should not surprise us.

Repeated studies and experience teach that young girls and women involved with older men are often in co-dependent and violent relationships. This is especially true if the relationship begins while the girl is an adolescent.

Studies indicate young girls are vulnerable to coercive and involuntary sexual activity. Seventy-four percent of sexually active girls under 14 years old are being coerced into sexual activity. More than 60% of sexually active girls 15 and under report their activity is not consensual.* This is according to Planned Parenthood’s own reasearch arm, The Guttmacher Institute.

It is for these reasons that every state in our nation criminalizes sexual activity with children and require health care providers to report unlawful sexual exploitation of children.

Yet, Planned Parenthood and its associates continue their work to weaken or even defy such laws. This approach stems from a flawed philosophy as demonstrated by the following statement by Mary S. Calderone, former Medical Director for Planned Parenthood. Calderone writes:

“One thing is certain, in any cases of sexual contact between a child and an adult where there has been no force or violence, the greater the fuss and uproar the greater the possible damage to the minor, the major effects of such incidents are caused not by the event itself but by the outraged, angry, fearful, and shocked reactions of the adults who learn of it, whether they be parents, relatives, or police. It is these immoderate reactions which cause whatever psychological damage occurs.” (“The Family Book About Sexuality,” at pg. 178, by Mary S. Calderone (Harper and Row, 1981).

In other words, the problem is not children having sex with adults, but rather the concern of parents, relatives and law enforcement. This approach stems from Planned Parenthood’s philosophy about sexuality. The organization does not view sexuality as a precious gift to be cherished in a monogamous and loving relationship but rather as a biological expression. Building on the infamous and flawed 1950’s studies and reports by Alfred Kinsey, Planned Parenthood believes that children are naturally sexual from birth.

Accordingly, Planned Parenthood’s expression of compassion is to offer pre-teens and adolescents birth control in an effort to prevent sexually transmitted disease. The approach willfully ignores the exploitive and manipulative coercive relationships that young children have with older men creating a huge gap in our society’s efforts to protect our children from such relationships.

Almost two-thirds of adolescents have sexual partners older than 20 years-old.** One California study reviewing 49,000 teen pregnancies found that 71% (33,000 pregnancies) involved a father at least five years older than the girl mother. The mean age of these fathers was 22.6 years. A majority of girls 15 years of age and younger who are sexually active have fathers 6-7 years older.*** Men 25 years and older father more children with children than boys 18 years and younger.

And so the headlines of violence and sexual exploitation continue. Over the next few days The Amistad Journey will share just a few of these stories with you.**** Please continue to support us in our efforts to enforce our nation’s laws that protect children and restrict abortion.

* Alan Guttmacher Institute. Sex and America’s Teenagers. New York, NY: Allan

Guttmacher Institute; 1994 (Guttmacher is a past President of the Planned  Parenthood Federation of America).

** American Academy of Pediatrics

Committee on Adolescence, Adolescent Pregnancy- Current Trends and Issues: 1998, 103 Pediatrics 516, 519 (1999).

*** Mike A. Males, Adult Involvement in Teenage Childbearing and STD, Lancet 64 (J

uly 8, 1995); HP Boyer and D. Fine, Sexual Abuse as a Factor in Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Maltreatment, Fam. Plan. Perspectives, at 4 (1992).

**** The stories will be recent and older to demonstrate the problem is

known and has been known. Our failure is that we have not elected men and women who will enforce these laws.

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