American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood International has developed a new resource to give parents who find themselves in the trenches and in need of help articulating arguments before school boards. This is another handy tool to fight Planned Parenthood and its comprehensive sex education programs.
With Obamacare’s Office of Adolescent Health now super funding Planned Parenthood sex education, our children are experiencing the biggest threat ever as the abortion giant partners with universities and community organizations in multi-million dollar grants to implement its perverse, repugnant, dangerous sex education.
Though Planned Parenthood touts sex education as a right, when it comes down to implementing its comprehensive sex education (CSE) in schools, Planned Parenthood never mentions sexual rights. Instead, it always relies on the argument that its sex education is necessary to reduce a high teen pregnancy rate (TPR). And no matter what the actual TPR is in the area, it is always portrayed as being too high. This is the argument parents find themselves up against time and time again when fighting Planned Parenthood sex education in the schools. When parents are actually able to get hold of the curriculum and show how repugnant it is, they are often met with demands from the school board to give them alternative programs. Here are some responses to arguments that parents often encounter when opposing Planned Parenthood sex education.
The argument: The teen pregnancy rate is very high in this area, and Planned Parenthood comprehensive sex education is needed to reduce the teen pregnancy rate.
The response:
The teen pregnancy rate and teen birth rate have currently reached all-time lows. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), pregnancy rates for teenagers reached historic lows in 2009, including rates for the three major race and Hispanic origin groups. Quoting the CDC, “In 2011, a total of 329,797 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a live birth rate of 31.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is a record low for U.S. teens in this age group, and a drop of eight percent from 2010. Birth rates fell 11 percent for women aged 15–17 years, and seven percent for women aged 18–19 years.” The CDC goes on to say that the “reasons for the declines are not clear” and that “teens seem to be less sexually active, and more of those who are sexually active seem to be using birth control than in previous years.”
Parents can obtain county-by-county teen pregnancy rate statistics from state health departments’ offices of vital statistics. Remember, the pregnancy rate is determined by how many teens per thousand get pregnant—not how many per hundred. The TPR is not a percentage number.
Contrary to the PPFA marketing (and lobbying) message, there is no correlation with PPFA community presence and reduced teen pregnancy. In fact, a longitudinal analysis of teen pregnancy rates in the Texas Panhandle over a 17-year period confirmed that, as Planned Parenthood left the area with its sex education and contraceptive programs, teen pregnancy rates declined dramatically, reaching an all-time low within two years of the time the last Planned Parenthood facility in the geographical area disaffiliated with PPFA.
Planned Parenthood’s nine page Fact Sheet on reducing teen pregnancy goes to great lengths to attempt to discredit abstinence education, but makes no claim that Planned Parenthood sex education reduces the teen pregnancy rate. PPFA cites no proof that its sex education reduces teen pregnancy because there is none.
The PPFA Teen Pregnancy Fact Sheet shows that PPFA sex education will encourage teens to have sex, saying that “an unrealistic emphasis is placed on preventing adolescent sexual behavior, which overlooks the fact that sexual expression is an essential component of healthy human development for individuals of all ages.” It goes on to say abstinence programs are “unrealistic.”
Planned Parenthood then admits in its Fact Sheet “the rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States is at its lowest level in nearly 40 years.” It points out that abstinence education is what was being taught to most students even as late as 2010, thus contradicting its own assertion that its comprehensive sex education is necessary to reduce the teen pregnancy rate.
If teens are having less sexual intercourse, it is obvious there will be fewer teen pregnancies. If teens are more sexually active, it is obvious there will be more teen pregnancies. This is not rocket science. Planned Parenthood sex education encourages more sex in general, and the onset of participation in sexual intercourse at earlier ages. Planned Parenthood says, “Ideally, sex education in school is an integrated process that builds upon itself year after year, is initiated in kindergarten, and is provided through grade 12.”
The argument: Planned Parenthood promotes abstinence in addition to medically accurate, age appropriate information about contraceptives and condoms.
The response:
Planned Parenthood admits that it believes youth must be sexually active in order to experience “healthy human development,” and that abstinence is unrealistic. It stands to reason that Planned Parenthood sex education, which will always promote “sexual expression,” will increase sexual expression and thus increase the teen pregnancy rate.
Planned Parenthood sex education is “sex positive,” meaning it promotes lifetime sexual expression.
In Hawaii, state representative Bob McDermott is challenging Planned Parenthood’s assertions that its Pono Choices curriculum is medically accurate and age appropriate. He points out that the curriculum wrongly defines the anus as genitalia, naming it a “sexual anatomy part.” He further points out that homosexuality is represented in 33 percent of the sexual scenarios presented, while homosexuality is manifest in only two to four percent of the male population and one to two percent of females. You can view Representative McDermott’s excellent slide show here. You can view the entire Pono Choices curriculum here.
Representative McDermott’s press release points out that, after battling for 45 days for the opportunity to review the curriculum, “My review has concluded that significant portions of Pono Choices are NOT medically accurate, NOT appropriate for 11-year-old children and deliberately misleading on STDs (sexually transmitted diseases.)”
Parents fighting Planned Parenthood sex education should obtain the curriculum and thoroughly review it. If you are able to obtain the curriculum before the school board meeting you are attending, bring it with you and read some of the most outrageous portions to the board, asking if this promotes abstinence, if it is medically accurate and age appropriate. If you have not been able to get the curriculum, ask that any meeting deciding upon implementation be postponed until parents are provided copies of all curriculum and teaching materials, and have had an opportunity to thoroughly review them. You may hear the objection that this is sensitive material and can be misconstrued. If so, all the more reason that parents need to be given an opportunity to conduct a full, private review of the curriculum before it is presented to their children.
The argument: Planned Parenthood sex education does not increase sexual activity or onset of sexual activity.
The response:
Planned Parenthood sex ed characterizes sex as “play” or a “game.” A perfect example is the sex ed program developed by the University of Texas, in partnership with Planned Parenthood, entitled “It’s your game, keep it real.”
The “info for teens” area of Planned Parenthood’s website describes erogenous zones and five phases of the “sexual response cycle” in graphic detail, wrapping up by telling teens: “Sexual pleasure can be important to our emotional and physical health and well-being.” It goes on to make bizarre claims that sexual pleasure leads to better health, increased self esteem, a more youthful appearance, better fitness, and a longer life! It characterizes sex as “play,” telling the teens, “Sex play—with or without a partner—can be a positive and powerful force in our lives. It helps us create connections to other people and it helps us enjoy our world.”
In keeping with Planned Parenthood’s philosophy, many of today’s comprehensive sex education programs teach arousal or sexual foreplay skills, characterized as “fun” or “games.” For example, Making Proud Choices—for which Planned Parenthood is a promoter and teacher trainer—teaches middle school children how to:
• make condoms fun and pleasurable,
• use condoms as a method of foreplay,
• act sexy/sensual when putting condoms on,
• hide [a] condom on your body and ask your partner to find it,
• tease each other sexually while putting on a condom,
• have fun putting one on your partner, while pretending you are different people or in different situations,
• feel more relaxed and really enjoy yourself, and
• use condoms to make erections last longer!
The argument: Teaching teens about contraception is just common sense.
The response:
Planned Parenthood divorces sex from procreation and builds a false sense of security among teens and children by encouraging the use of contraceptives and condoms for protection against babies and STDs, while never mentioning or misrepresenting the real world failure rates. The Guttmacher Institute, which started as Planned Parenthood’s research arm and continues to do so as an “independent” organization, admits that 54 percent of those who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually a condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant.
The argument: Planned Parenthood is the nation’s number one sexuality expert. It is familiar with the programs available and can explain them to us. That is why we are choosing Planned Parenthood to give input, or replicate or develop our sexual education program, or even to teach it to our children or train our teachers.
The response:
In addition to opposing abstinence education and morality in sex education, Planned Parenthood stands to profit exponentially off of sexually active teens and young adults, and therefore has an irreconcilable conflict of interest when it comes to sex education.
In 2012, in addition to the income it generated from its sex education programs and its contraceptive and STD treatment business, Planned Parenthood grossed an estimated $170 million from its abortion business—an amount equal to more than 55 percent of its non-government clinic income.
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion chain. Each time a contraceptive fails, Planned Parenthood stands to profit financially.
The argument: If you don’t like sex education in the schools, opt your children out or give the school board alternative sex ed programs to pursue.
The response:
In some instances, children may be opted out of these programs. However, they will still be exposed to the sex education being taught to other children, who are encouraged to talk about sex and act out sexual situations through role-playing.
Furthermore, children are coerced into many of these programs with cash incentives and other gifts. An example of this is Planned Parenthood’s SIHLE program in Florida where African American teens as young as 14 years of age are paid to attend “empowerment” programs. In Oregon, Planned Parenthood personnel are extremely aggressive in obtaining the children’s participation in its TOP after-school program by promising them all sorts of gifts and cash.
While opting out may provide some level of protection for your child, it is a stopgap measure and never a final solution. Sex education does not belong in the classroom. Psychoanalyst Melvin Anchell has detailed how early exposure to graphic sex education can warp a child’s development and lead to obsessions with all sorts of sexual perversions in later life.
Proper sex education for a child is dependent on the actual mental maturity of the child, and that cannot be determined in a classroom setting. Sex education programs can often lead to the deformation of a child’s conscience. Children should be taught to turn to a parent or other trusted adult relative for questions relating to sex.
Sex education programs from pre-kindergarten through high school continuously belittle the intimate, affectionate, monogamous nature of human sexuality.
It is not a school’s place to impose sexual immorality upon its students, nor to portray parents’ views on sexual morality as outdated or just plain inaccurate or stupid. Many psychologists and psychiatrists have spoken out against sex education in schools, pointing out its damaging effect on children.
Dr. Miriam Grossman, UCLA campus psychiatrist for 11 years, is one of the most outspoken on the dangers of the hookup culture promoted by Planned Parenthood. She shows how the fundamental premises of modern sexuality education—the radical theories of Kinsey, Pomeroy, Money, and other pedophiles—are easily debunked with 21st century science. Her books and blog are a must read for those fighting Planned Parenthood sex education. You can read her brief history of sex ed here.
The argument: Sex education is required in our state.
The response:
Planned Parenthood often leads parents and school board members to believe comprehensive sex ed is required by state law when it is not. The National Conference of State Legislatures’ State Policies on Sex Education in Schools summarizes on its website:
All states are somehow involved in sex education for public schoolchildren. As of January 1, 2014:
• 22 states and the District of Columbia require public schools teach sex education (20 of which mandate sex education and HIV education).
• 33 states and the District of Columbia require students receive instruction about HIV/AIDS.
• 19 states require that if provided, sex education must be medically, factually, or technically accurate. State definitions of “medically accurate” vary, from requiring that the department of health review curriculum for accuracy, to mandating that curriculum be based on information from “published authorities upon which medical professionals rely.”
Many states define parents’ rights concerning sexual education:
• 37 states and the District of Columbia require school districts to allow parental involvement in sexual education programs.
• Three states require parental consent before a child can receive instruction.
• 35 states and the District of Columbia allow parents to opt out on behalf of their children.
Parents can find specific state laws and policies regarding sex education in their state on the Rutgers website, and state-by-state information on the Abstinence Works website as well.
In those states where sex education is required, parents must fight to repeal the law. For those who find themselves in that position, it may be necessary to get the Planned Parenthood program replaced, while continuing the battle to eliminate classroom sex education. Those parents should be aware of the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education program.
Heritage Keepers is the only abstinence until marriage program on the Obamacare Office of Adolescent Health approved list. Mary McLellan, director of advocacy at Heritage Community Services and chair for the Healthy Family Formation Coalition (HFF), is at the forefront of fighting comprehensive sex education promoted by Planned Parenthood and its cronies.
[22 Jan 2014, http://www.stopp.org/article.php?id=13284 ; This article originally appeared in this issue of the WSR: 2014-01-22; http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001owfHaxCuBU4oQEig-zn__AJYCX_sKz9ZxL9nej51OE4uCWfWz1qZ1XDFBnu7_OxwrZDLzC6Zm4vYqzYyM7vSol7hTsn4REbtTsvVmcC9w9ZoBwFAmUDjGQ== ]