The Empire Strikes Back

Planned Parenthood Levels Up Its Sexualization of Children

Founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 as the American Birth Control League, Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the U.S. Despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the nonprofit plows on undaunted, operating nearly 600 “health centers” across the U.S. and reporting more than nine million “services” rendered in its 2024 annual report. For pregnant “persons” living in states with abortion restrictions, it aims to “welcome patients from down the street [and] from two, or three, or five states over” in order to “educate,” “hold hands,” and “find the referrals, the resources, the energy, the extra minute a patient needs.”

Reason for Surveillance

Planned Parenthood is also the nation’s largest provider of sex education, reporting that it reaches 1.2 million people a year through education and outreach. It helps teachers level up their classroom experiences with such resources as digital games, quizzes, interactive worksheets, and short (around seven-minute) videos on “How Do You Know if Someone Wants to Have Sex with You?,” “How to Talk About Having Safer Sex,” and “How to Tell Someone You Have an STD.” One seven-page lesson plan on “consent” includes a series of borderline pornographic videos (featuring same-sex and opposite-sex couples) and concludes with role-playing exercises for students to practice.

The “Sex Ed To-Go for Teachers” platform offers what it calls “bite-sized professional development courses” in English and Spanish, all of which are “completely free for teachers and students.” While ostensibly “for teachers,” any user providing an email address can enroll in courses with longer videos (20–45 minutes) which will educate them on such subjects as “How to Use a Condom,” “How Abortion Works,” or “Connect & Respect: Relationship Skills for Tweens.” The narrative in all courses affirms abortion as a “safe” medical procedure and a pregnant “person’s” right, which should be unequivocally destigmatized.

Most Recent Offense

The course “Barriers to Abortion Care” (22 lessons plus a 30-minute video) intends to expand abortion “care” by circumventing barriers that are (1) legal, (2) logistic, and (3) personal. Where there are legal restrictions, minors are taught how to file for a judicial bypass, i.e., how to circumvent parental involvement laws, thereby placing autonomy in the hands of the minor. Where there are logistical barriers—travel, locating providers—users can access an interactive map that will steer them away from life-affirming pregnancy resource centers and into the waiting stirrups of an abortion provider. Finally, for those needing to overcome personal barriers, such as pesky stigmas held by family, culture, or religious affiliation, they are treated to videos and articles from previously pregnant persons, jubilant over their decision to abort (e.g., “Shout Your Abortion”).

Many of these educational initiatives, though ostensibly directed at “teachers,” are clearly aimed at minors. Through well-funded, slick instructional design, they not only promote heterosexual sex without consequences but also affirm a wide array of gender identities and sexually deviant behaviors. Not long ago, responsible parents and caregivers were cautious about allowing other adults to discuss sex with their children. But today, Planned Parenthood’s sex education goes far beyond straightforward, academic discussions of sex and brazenly introduces “comprehensive,” hypersexualized content to children.