Wisconsin law once again looks the other way on sexual assault of children

Yesterday, I posted the Wisconsin Department of Health Services' report showing that the number of abortions in Wisconsin continues to plummet.

While combing through the report, I noticed something I hadn't previously encountered:

By law, the adult consent requirement for a minor's induced abortion is waived if the pregnancy was the result of sexual assault...or if the pregnancy was the result of sexual intercourse with a caregiver.

Without a doubt, the importance of privacy for victims of sexual assault cannot be overemphasized. But if a minor is being raped, surely that's information her parents might want need to know about, right? That sort of knowledge is pretty important for empowering parents to take care of and protect their children, right?

Unless our state means to suggest that the absolute right to an abortion trumps the right of parents to protect their children. We've already seen how state law protects child rapists by exempting family planning health care providers from reporting sexual assault.