Rise in child sex abuse cases reported by Kansas abortion providers shouldn't have been a surprise

The shocking rise in child sex abuse cases reported by Kansas abortion providers needs to be addressed by our policymakers.

But legislators can't tackle what they don't know is a problem.

The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Jason Tidd reports the statistics were newly compiled by the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which is responsible for issuing a mandatory annual report of the abuses under state law. However, it hadn't done so for the past six years until asked about it by Tidd.

"The Brownback administration stopped publishing these reports in 2016," said DCF spokesperson Mike Deines. "It is unclear why. Once we were made aware of this, we updated the requested data from the missing years to ensure that the public record is complete. Additionally, moving forward, we have put in place procedures to ensure that this information is published as required by KSA 65-445(g)."

This is concerning to us. We don't know why the Brownback administration opted to stop doing the mandated reports — and frankly, at this point, it's too late to worry about that. That being said it should have been spotted and addressed earlier in the Kelly administration.

More: Rise in child sex abuse cases went unreported to Kansas lawmakers for six years

While we can all see where and why many see Brownback as the state's boogeyman, it’s a little late in Go. Kelly’s term for her department leaders to be passing the buck on this issue.

Tidd reports Kansas abortion providers have reported more than 100 cases of child sex abuse cases to state child welfare officials over the past six years. In the past fiscal year alone, abortion providers reported 56 victims of child sexual abuse to the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

One child was 8 years old. Another was 9, though the report doesn't directly confirm that the patients were pregnant and got abortions. The agency's six years of reports from abortion providers include several pre-teen victims: one 3-year-old, one 8-year-old, two 9-year-olds, two 11-year-olds and four 12-year-olds.

These stats are sobering.

Could the state have done something to prevent some of these unspeakable acts? We will never know, because we were never informed. Our policymakers can't do anything about these situations if they're not informed about the issue.

Rep. Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, made a wise observation: "Gosh, it makes me wonder what other reports we're not getting," she said. "The whole purpose when I pushed for the establishment of this oversight committee was to hear this type of thing."

Let's hope such information is readily available — and acted upon — in the months and years to come.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: DCF failed Kansas children, lawmakers by not making mandatory reports