TLC Pulls ’19 Kids and Counting’ Amid Josh Duggar Child Molestation Scandal

TLC recently announced its decision to pull all rerun episodes of "19 Kids and Counting" from the network amid allegations that "19 Kids'" star Josh Duggar molested five underage girls when he was a teenager, E! News reports.

TLC revealed via a press release that its decision to pull all rerun episodes would be effective immediately. The network has yet to announce whether it will continue to air the next season of "19 Kids" in the future.

"Effective immediately, TLC has pulled all episodes of 19 Kids and Counting currently from the air," the cable network said in a press release obtained by E! "We are deeply saddened and troubled by this heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and victims at this difficult time."

E! News reports that the latest season of "19 Kids" recently wrapped up on Tuesday, May 19, and on Friday TLC canceled the show's reruns and have since replaced "19 Kids" with reruns of other TLC shows such as "7 Little Johnstons."

The official TLC site states that "19 Kids" reruns will return to the network beginning on June 1.

TLC's decision to cancel "19 Kids" reruns comes on the heels of an InTouch Weekly report that revealed Duggar molested five young girls at the age of 14 beginning in 2002, TMZ reports.

InTouch Weekly has since deleted the report from its database, but TMZ says that the report included police documents detailing that Duggar "fondled the genitals and breasts of the girls, some of whom were sleeping, but sometimes they were interacting with him."

Josh Duggar, his wife Anna and his parents Jim Bob and Michelle have since opened up about the allegations and released a statement to People.

In the statement, Josh apologizes for his inexcusable actions and revealed that he has since gone through counseling to deal with his mistakes.

"My parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling. I understood that if I continued down this wrong road that I would end up ruining my life," Josh said.

His parents added that since the scandal, they have grown closer to God and taught Josh to do the same.

Finally, Josh's wife Anna admitted that he told her about the allegations prior to them getting married, but she made the decision to stick by his side.

"I can imagine the shock many of you are going through reading this. I remember feeling that same shock. When my family and I first visited the Duggar home, Josh shared his past teenage mistakes," Anna said.

"I was surprised at his openness and humility and at the same time didn't know why he was sharing it. For Josh, he wanted not just me but my parents to know who he really was -- even very difficult past mistakes."

Since coming forth to the public about the reports of his child molestation, Josh has resigned from his position at the Family Research Council.

According to Gawker, the offense report detailing Josh's actions were recently destroyed by Arkansas police in an effort to protect the victims involved in the scandal.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has also come forth to defend Josh and the Duggar family and slammed the media for publishing the offense report.

Governor Huckabee published a Facebook message on Friday that read, "Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive blood thirst."

Check out Gov. Huckabee's full Facebook message below.