There should be no question as to whether Fox News is the media mouthpiece for those who are waging a war on women's reproductive health. And there should be no question as to whether Bill O'Reilly is the main conduit for the anti-choice movement who, in their ongoing crusade to destroy Planned Parenthood, continue their ongoing claim that this organization doesn't report statutory rape. Recently, they made the bogus claim that the Virginia Attorney General "issued a shocking ruling" that absolved abortion clinics from reporting statutory rape of teenage girls who come to the clinic for abortions. Suffice to say that is clearly a big, fat, pro-life lie but that didn't stop Bill O'Reilly from attacking Mark Herring with this lie. I guess that now that Dr. Tiller is gone, O'Reilly needs a new scapegoat?
During Tuesday night's "Is it Legal" segment with his attorney wingwomen, Lis Wiehl and Kimberly Guilfoyle, O'Reilly attacked Virginia's "liberal" Attorney General who, according to O'Reilly, "is now saying to the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 'I will not enforce the statutory rape laws for girls 13 to 15,' is that correct?...Right, so just to be clear here, just to be very clear: statutory rape is of a minor, and then when an abortion clinic or a doctor or a nurse or whatever finds that that has happened they have to report it by law to state authorities." Guilfoyle validated O'Reilly's attack: "Yes. He's saying that it's his opinion that specifically they don't need to make a report of crime of carnal knowledge of a child between the ages of 13 and 15 years of age. This is not law though, this is an opinion that he is giving to give direction."
When O'Reilly said that the AG is not going to enforce the law, Guilfoyle agreed. O'Reilly continued to channel Herring in order to make him look like he supports statutory rape: "But Herring says no, we in the Commonwealth of Virginia don't care if little girls are raped. We don't care because, I the Attorney General, am too damn lazy, or an ideological zealot, or both, to enforce this law. Do I have it wrong?" Loyal Fox foot soldier that she is, Guilfoyle said that O'Reilly was right.
Not only was O'Reilly wrong, he was telling a BIG, FAT LIE. The relevant section of the Virginia Law states that "a VDH licensing inspector who is a nurse and who, during the course of a hospital inspection, learns from the review of a medical record that a fourteen-year-old girl received services related to her pregnancy is not required to make a report of child abuse and neglect pursuant to Virginia Code § 63.2-1509 unless there is reason to suspect that a parent or other person responsible for the child's care committed, or allowed to be committed, the unlawful sexual act upon the child." In other words, the Planned Parenthood (or other health care professional with whom the pregnant minor is in contact) is not required to report child abuse unless it is suspected.
The AG merely informed the state Health Commissioner that a teen pregnancy is not evidence of sexual abuse because - wait for it - teens can impregnate other teens (Except, of course, if they are getting an O'Reilly approved Catholic education in which case they are models of pre-marital purity.) The law is clear; but, as reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, social conservatives are outraged and just won't accept it.
O'Reilly's claim that the the Virgina AG doesn't "care if little girls are raped" is ridiculous given the wording of the law. And if the AG is following the law, he is not, like Bill O'Reilly, an "ideological zealot." What O'Reilly doesn't know (or want to know) is that there is nothing in the law which prevents health care personnel from reporting suspected child abuse to the authorities.
As stated in the Richomond Times-Dispatch, "If lawmakers or others think nurses who inspect hospitals, abortion clinics and so forth should be required to report any pregnancy of a 14-year-old to law enforcement authorities, then they should amend the Code of Virginia to impose that requirement. They shouldn’t expect the attorney general to rewrite the law by fiat." Or, I might add, Bill O'Reilly's desire to make it so.
Obviously only the people and lawmakers of Virginia can change the law that O'Reilly wrongly claims isn't being observed. So unless and until he moves there, he should really STFU instead of defaming the Virginia AG. And as we saw with Dr. Tiller, when O'Reilly defames, things happen...
Same deal for ‘Death Taxes’, ‘Socialised Medicine’ and all the rest of their mind-control crap.