Iowans won a victory in court Wednesday when the state Supreme Court decided that taxpayers do not have to fund Planned Parenthood’s controversial sex education programs.
The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa Supreme Court ruled 6-1 in favor of the 2019 law, arguing that the state has legitimate concerns about the abortion chain teaching children.
In 2019, the Iowa legislature passed a law to disqualify abortion providers from its sex education grants in response to a strong public outcry. But Planned Parenthood of the Heartland sued, claiming the state unfairly singled it out, and a state judge blocked the law.
The Iowa Supreme Court disagreed Wednesday and reversed the lower court ruling.
“Even if the programs do not include any discussions about abortion, the goals of promoting abstinence and reducing teenage pregnancy could arguably still be undermined when taught by the entity that performs nearly all abortions in Iowa,” the justices wrote in their decision, according to the Register.
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Iowa Planned Parenthood affiliates received about $265,000 in taxpayer-funded sex education grants in 2019 and about $182,000 in 2020, The Gazette reported last year. The abortion chain provides sex education in 31 schools and 12 youth organizations in Iowa.
Planned Parenthood does about 40 percent of all abortions in the United States and about 95 percent in Iowa, according to the Iowa Attorney General. Pro-life advocates and former employees of the abortion chain have warned that Planned Parenthood uses its sex education programs to encourage risky sexual behavior and sell abortions.
The judges agreed that the state may act on these concerns and prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups from receiving state sex education funding.
“The state could also be concerned that using abortion providers to deliver sex education programs to teenage students would create relationships between the abortion provider and the students the state does not wish to foster in light of its policy preference for childbirth over abortion,” they wrote.
Iowa Assistant Attorney General Thomas Ogden said parents do not like the idea of an abortion advocacy group teaching their children.
“If you’re a parent or a citizen of the state, and you find out Planned Parenthood is providing sex education under these programs for Iowa teens, there’s a risk you would react differently than you would react to someone else who was not engaged in extracurricular performance of abortion or advocacy in favor of access to abortion,” he told the court.
Parents across the country have raised serious concerns about the largest abortion provider in America is teaching sex education to their children.
Earlier this summer, parents in Tacoma, Washington were outraged after their middle school students received a Planned Parenthood flyer that promoted sex to 11-year-olds and told them that they could get an abortion without a parent’s knowledge.
Planned Parenthood teaches sex education to at least 221,000 students in 31 states, according to CBS News.
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,” tells young people that it is their “human right” to not tell their sexual 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 Florida, 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.
According to CBS News, North Carolina parents 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 believe Planned Parenthood uses its sex education programs to push abortions. One of its former CEO recently said abortion is Planned Parenthood’s “core mission.”
