Planned Parenthood, Your Children, and Sex

America’s Abortion Provider: What Everyone Should Know About Planned Parenthood* by Jeanne Monahan

(Excerpt)

“Early in her career, Margaret Sanger promoted sex education for children. In 1916 she authored and published the book What Every Girl Should Know, addressing adolescent sex, menstruation, contraception, and other topics. She later wrote a book titled, What Every Boy and Girl Should Know, published in 1927. Sex education for children has remained critical to Planned Parenthood over the years. Prominent on its current website is the “Info for Teens” tab (found at www.plannedparenthood.org/info-for-teens/). Hardly neutral, the website indicates a bias against heterosexual, monogamous, lifelong, marital commitment. Even in its “All About Relationships” section, “marriage” fails to be mentioned even once.44 Major subheadings on this site include: Dating, Family and Friends; Body and Mind; Sex and Masturbation; Birth Control; Safer Sex and STDs; Teen Pregnancy; and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning.

One option is to follow Planned Parenthood Teen Info on Twitter. If so, you will read posts such as, “Genitals are like snowflakes. No two sets are alike.” One of the first pictures one encounters is a man with his arm around another man and the caption, “How to talk to your partner about herpes.”

While the website encourages parents to attempt to discuss sexual activity with their teenage children, it also suggests that parents are ill-prepared to discuss teenage sexual activity.45 In the teen section titled “Relationships,” Planned Parenthood promises to help young people “keep things cool at home” 46 and offers “safe, confidential information” at a myriad of Planned Parenthood locations.47 The information provided in this pamphlet is anecdotal, but we suggest that any parent of an adolescent become aware of Planned Parenthood’s material, and direct outreach to your son or daughter. Planned Parenthood prioritizes an individual’s sexual self-expression. Parents who wish to offer their children a healthier moral framework should understand the competing narrative.

International Planned Parenthood Federation also has published several pieces on sexual education over the last few years. The first report, “Stand and Deliver: Sex, Health and Young People in the 21st Century,” published in January 2010, advocates policies that dangerously over-sexualize children as young as ten. The recommendations are developmentally inappropriate, downplaying the role of parents in transmitting values to their children, and accusing religious groups of “deny[ing young people] the pleasurable and positive aspects of sex.” The report advocates for an international “human right” to unlimited contraception and mandatory “comprehensive” sex education for children as young as ten. To see this report, go to the following website: www.ippf.org/resources/ publications/stand-and-deliver.

Additionally, International Planned Parenthood released a sex education guide for HIV-positive youth in January 2010 titled, “Happy, Healthy, Hot: A Young Person’s Guide to Their Rights and Living with HIV.” Some quotes from this guide include the following: “Many people think sex is just about vaginal or anal intercourse… But, there are lots of different ways to have sex and lots of different types of sex. There is no right or wrong way to have sex. Just have fun, explore and be yourself!” The guide also recommends, “Improve your sex life by getting to know your own body. Play with yourself! Masturbation is a great way to find out more about your body and what you find sexually stimulating. Mix things up by using different kinds of touch from very soft to hard. Talk about or act out your fantasies. Talk dirty to them.”

Alarmingly, the sex guide for adolescents advocates against national laws that HIV-positive people must reveal their life-threatening status to their sex partner. The guide claims that these laws “violate the rights of people living with HIV.” They explain,“There are many reasons that people do not share their HIV status. … They may worry that people will find out something else they have kept secret, like they are using injecting drugs, having sex outside of a marriage or having sex with people of the same gender.” To see this report, please visit this website: www.ippf.org/resources/publications/healthy-happy-hot.

On October 1, 2010, the Obama Administration announced grant recipients for its new sex education program, which replaced longtime federal abstinence education. Of the recipients named, Planned Parenthood’s Teen Prevention Program (PREP) was awarded a total of $22 million annually for five years to provide sex education to children.48″