The dirty secret that few people understand is that Planned Parenthood's policies actually abet the continued exploitation of rape and sexual abuse victims. Because of Planned Parenthood's ill-conceived programs, many girls who have been traumatized by childhood sexual abuse, rape, and other forms of sexual coercion never receive the mental health treatment they deserve. Instead, Planned Parenthood simply dispenses pills, condoms, and abortions, then sends the young women back into the cruel world to be revictimized. "The 'Hood" knows that these traumatized women often become the agency's best customers -- so why should they actually try to treat the core issues?

Here's how it works.

According to extensive research (Putnum, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, March 2003) approximately 15 per cent of young women have been victims of molestation by age 18. Child sexual abuse is one of the catalysts for PTSD for non-combat sufferers. The abused child (and often the adult) will experience many of the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress: numbed emotions, amnesia for the actual event, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation, hypervigilance, avoidance of the scene/perpetrator of the assault, and a host of secondary symptoms ranging from phobias and panic attacks to compulsions and obsessions. Other devastating effects of child sexual abuse and rape is that the victim often suffers intense guilt, self-loathing, and clinical depression. Many feel "dirty" or "ruined" for normal relationships. As a clinical mental health therapist, I know these victims personally.

But here is something that most nonprofessionals don't know: many of these girls engage in promiscuity in the vain attempt to "master" the sexual abuse from their childhoods. Their minds seem stuck in a primitive thought pattern that says, "If I can recreate the situation, but this time emerge as the victor over the perpetrator, then I can finally have a normal life." We've seen these women who are drawn into exploitative relationships like a moth to a lamp -- again, and again, and again. Friends and family members warn them. But these women seem compelled to re-engage in abusive relationships in the unconscious attempt to make it "turn out right this time". Of course, this strategy multiplies future trauma. According to national statistics, women who were victims of childhood sexual abuse are 2 to 3 times more likely to suffer sexual assault later in life. Women die trying to fix their past this way.

The way that Planned Parenthood engages in this war on the most vulnerable women is at least twofold -- individually and culturally. On the level of the individual, Planned Parenthood simply treats the inconvenient physical symptoms of the sexual abuse. Diabolically, this leaves her not only defenseless against further exploitation but more attractive to further exploitation. Most pedophiles are rather repulsed by pregnancy and STDs -- but Planned Parenthood comes to the perps' rescue! After the abortion is committed, or the antibiotics dispensed, the youngster instantly regains her sexual appeal. In this scenario of utmost ethical malfeasance, Planned Parenthood ignores this young woman's abusive relationship, and her desperate need for long-term mental health therapy. Instead, the workers congratulate themselves that they are "helping" the very women they are damaging physically, emotionally, and financially.

On a cultural level, Planned Parenthood's normalization of teen promiscuity effectively conceals these abuse victims. Before about 1965, when teen sexual activity was not an accepted, expected, and promoted ideal, the majority of girls were not sexually active during the high-school years. The girls who "slept around" were anomalies and certainly attracted notice. The girl who turned up pregnant without a boyfriend was cause for scandal. With what we know about sexual abuse at present, these violated young women would be more than topics of gossip -- they would be invited into the safety of a counseling relationship. And the perpetrator would likely be identified and prosecuted. But today, not so much.

Today, because of organizations like Planned Parenthood, these victims blend in with the rest of the hooking-up generation. Research statistics show that "60% of girls who had sex before the age of 15 were coerced by males averaging 6 years their senior." But since sexual acting out is considered normal by progressives, these victims are much more difficult to identify and treat than they would be in a more sexually protective culture.

As an example of this masking effect, consider the fact that reported levels of childhood sexual abuse (age 0-18) actually decreased between the years 1986-1993 although all forms of childhood abuse increased by 67 per cent in the same period (Putnum, 2010). From 1992-2009 the overall reported rates of childhood sexual abuse declined an astounding 61 per cent! Could one possibility for this counterintuitive finding be linked to a sexually permissive culture? This hypothesis of permissive sexual mores as a mask for sexual abuse is intriguing.

Instead of receiving much needed counseling, these wounded women are abandoned to cycle from one abusive relationship to another. These victims trade sexual favors for temporary acceptance, only to end up with a devastated self-worth crushed by a mountain of trauma. Thanks, Planned Parenthood. Free condoms, contraceptives, abortions, and the "Plan B" pill make this tragedy even more catastrophic for these women and for our entire society.