AUSTRALIA, April 30, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A 19-year-old man faces at least six months in jail after admitting to statutory rape with a 15-year-old girl he met last year. The man subsequently used the morning-after pill to cover up the crime.
Daniel Lovell, who originally got to know the minor girl through Facebook and text messages, met her in person last May at an area McDonald's. Before the evening was over, despite the girl having a boyfriend, the two engaged in consensual sex.
The age of consent is 16 in Australia, though there are mitigating factors. One factor the law takes into consideration is if the defendant is within two years of the age of the minor; another is whether the defendant didn't know the age of the minor or was tricked into sex.
Lovell, who is four years older than the girl and admitted in court that he was aware of the girl's age, went with the girl to a nearby pharmacy to buy the morning-after pill after their encounter.
He has not contacted the girl since.
Two months later, the girl told her father and boyfriend about what happened. Lovell was eventually arrested last October.
He entered a guilty plea on Wednesday, though his lawyer requested a suspended prison term, without which the minimum Lovell will face is six months in prison.
Pro-life activists have long voiced concerns that the morning-after pill could be used by child rapists to cover up their crimes. This is especially a concern in nations like the United States, where purchase of the morning-after pill does not require a prescription.
A judge ordered the morning-after pill, including Plan B One Step, to be available prescription-free in early 2013.
In June 2013, Fox News' Laura Ingraham and Bill O'Reilly discussed the danger of giving rapists the ability to easily cover up their crimes by using the morning-after pill. O'Reilly pointed to how “statutory rape…[is] very underreported in this country.”
Last May, the Acton Institute pointed to how no-prescription use of the pill would help sex traffickers, saying that “the FDA just took out another line of defense for young victims, opening them to further violation, danger and exploitation.”
Also in May, a GOP strategist told Fox News that by following the court order, “the president is somehow saying, ‘If you engage in that activity — criminal behavior — that’s okay because the government is going to provide you the out for your bad decision making.’”
This was not just a theory.
Likewise, a 19-year-old male in England forced his 12-year-old sexual partner to take the morning-after pill on multiple occasions starting in 2012 – a year after Britain allowed women of all ages to take the pill, free of charge.
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In 2008, Students for Life of America (SFLA) videotaped two women posing as underage girls who had sex with their mother's boyfriend. Both girls said they were looking for the morning-after pill, but the Planned Parenthood facilities, both located in North Carolina, did not act on that information – in violation of state law.
Last November, SFLA did a series of undercover videos showing actors playing a 30-something male and an underage teenage girl asking for Plan B One Step. In some cases, he admitted he would give it to the girl against her will.
Nonetheless, pharmacists gave the man the pill.