According to the Catholic bishops in Connecticut, thousands of abortions appear to go unreported each year in violation of state law. This is a serious charge from the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference which just released its fourth annual report on abortion.

While the number of reported abortion continues to decline, the study shows a large discrepancy in the number being reported to the state with the numbers being reported to the Guttmacher Institute. The study states that, “On average,19 percent of abortions go unreported to the Connecticut Department of Health by Connecticut abortion providers each year.”

In all, 12,456 abortions “went unreported during the four years examined.”

Connecticut state law mandates that every abortion as soon as it is performed is reported to the DPH. Because of this discrepancy, the conference is questioning the industry’s compliance with other abortion regulations.

Can providers who fail to complete a one page report to the state be trusted to properly counsel minor girls receiving abortions as required by State law or report instance of the sexual assault of minors as required by the mandatory reporting law?

Michael C. Culhane, the conference’s executive director, said that abortion providers “need to be fined, suspended or have their license revoked” if they fail to comply with the law, according to The Hartford Courant.

Many of the forms submitted lack an age or the length of gestation. That issue, as well as overall underreporting, could mean cases of statutory rape are not being reported, or that late-term abortions, which are regulated by state law, are going unnoticed, Culhane said, according to The Middeltown Press.

Because of the discrepancies and sloppy reporting, the Conference requests that the General Assembly enact an adult notification law as well as a law to prevent minors from out of state receive an abortion when their state has a parental notification law.

Personally, I’m not really sure what the deal is here. There’s a lot smarter people than me who could read the report and probably see what’s going on here and why. My take is that the abortion industry is under reporting to the state because it’s performing abortion on young girls or on later term babies. Any thoughts on what they gain from under reporting?