Recently two school boards in opposite ends of Canada, B.C. and Ontario, voted to remove Planned Parenthood sex education programs from their schools. Why? What is it about this organization and its programs that create such controversy?
If we ignore their statement on being “pro-choice”, Planned Parenthood seems benign enough. It appears to be an open-minded, tolerant group, respectful of the opinions of others.
Planned Parenthood is especially concerned with teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. These are also legitimate parental concerns, especially if your children are in their teens. PP states one of its aims as “promoting comprehensive family life education programs.”
One of their Community Education Coordination laments, “We cannot blame teens for making uninformed decisions when we refuse to teach them the skills and promote attitudes that turn knowledge into action (emphasis added).
Knowledge becomes action
Perhaps it was PP’s way of turning “knowledge into action” that disturbed the parents and school boards in B.C. and Ontario. Planned Parenthood is so adept at this that its own figures show teens who have taken “comprehensive sex-ed courses” have a 50 per cent higher rate of sexual activity than their unenlightened peers.
PP policy does mention that “adolescents should be encouraged, when possible to involve their parents”, but then downgrades that parents’ role by adding “or involve… concerned adults in their reproductive decision-making. I don’t mean to be cynical, but couldn’t a ‘concerned adult’ include a 22-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old?
Planned Parenthood claims to teach our children about sexuality in a non-judgmental way. What parents and school boards in B.C. and Ontario know is that there is no such thing as a neutral position on Children’s health. Either you believe it is harmless for minor children to start using birth control, or you don’t.
(Ingrid Krueger us executive director of Alliance Action, Winnipeg, Manitoba. This article originally appeared in Christian Week).