Planned Parenthood will not be allowed to use taxpayer dollars to teach sex education to Iowa children anymore.
On Friday, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a state Health and Human Services budget bill that makes abortion providers ineligible for sex education grants, Iowa State Daily reports. The state’s first female governor, Reynolds is pro-life.
The move cuts about $260,000 in grant funding to Planned Parenthood, according to the Des Moines Register. The abortion chain boasts of being one of the largest sex education providers in Iowa.
State Rep. Joel Fry, a pro-life Republican, said Iowa residents have been urging him and his fellow lawmakers to defund abortion groups from the sex education program, WHO TV 13 reported, previously.
“The HHS budget will continue to provide grants to organizations that provide Iowa students with sex education,” Fry said. “We are continuing to provide the same level of funding as we have in the past; however, abortion providers will no longer be eligible for grants.
“We have consistently heard from Iowans that they do not want their hard-earned tax dollars used by organizations whose primary business model is providing abortions,” he continued.
The bill passed the state legislature at the end of April.
Erin Davison-Rippey, executive director of the Iowa branch of Planned Parenthood, argued that the funding block will hurt young people in the state.
“This is a huge loss to the thousands of youth who would benefit from comprehensive and nonjudgmental sex education—programs that help them understand what a healthy relationship is, practice personal responsibility, delay sexual activity and protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and STDs when they do become sexually active,” Davison-Rippey said. “Denying young people this information is denying them their human rights.”
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Parents across the country have expressed serious concerns and even outrage when they learn that the largest abortion provider in America is teaching sex education to their children.
Planned Parenthood teaches sex education to at least 221,000 students in 31 states, according to CBS News.
In November, upset parents flooded a Florida school district with complaints after one of Planned Parenthood’s graphic sex education videos was shown to students without parents’ knowledge or consent.
Among its worst teaching points, Planned Parenthood tells children that promiscuity is ok. “There’s nothing bad or unhealthy about having a big number of sexual partners,” it tells students on its Tumbler page. Planned Parenthood’s booklet for HIV-positive youth, “Healthy, Happy and Hot,” also tells young people that it is their “human right” to not tell their partner that they have HIV.
Numerous communities have rejected Planned Parenthood as a sex education teacher. The whole Massachusetts legislature rejected a bill in 2017 that recommended Planned Parenthood’s middle school sex education curriculum. The program teaches children as young as 12 “how to perform oral and anal sex.”
Concerned parents in Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Washington state, New York, North Carolina and other parts of the country also have protested Planned Parenthood’s involvement in their students’ education in the past several years.
In one recent case, parents at a Pennsylvania school said a Planned Parenthood partner group taught seventh-grade students graphic details about oral sex during a science class.
In another case reported by CBS News, North Carolina parents petitioned for Planned Parenthood to stop teaching their middle school students. They said Planned Parenthood’s “Get Real” curriculum “encourages sixth graders to feel ‘comfortable and ready’ for sex. The petition says the curriculum provides flash cards outlining proper condom usage, for ‘vaginal, oral or anal sex’ and recommends the usage of ‘non-microwavable saran wrap’ as a prophylactic for certain non-reproductive sex acts.”
Many worry that Planned Parenthood uses its sex education programs to push abortion as well. Its president, Leana Wen, has been clear that abortion is Planned Parenthood’s “core mission.”
