Iowa Republicans Block Planned Parenthood’s Sex Ed Funding

Iowa Republican lawmakers passed a health and human services budget bill that blocks Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from sex education funding.

As the legislative session winds down, the state House passed the bill Saturday 52-47. The state Senate passed the bill Friday 31-19. The legislation now heads to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds for her signature.

Iowa Right to Life celebrated the legislature’s approval of the bill:

GOP state Rep. Sandy Salmon said excluding Planned Parenthood from the funding will not affect access to quality sex education, reported Iowa Public Radio.

“That organization has a different goal in mind,” Salmon said. “Their business interests are totally the opposite of the state’s interests.”

Erin Davison-Rippey, state executive director for Planned Parenthood Voters of Iowa, condemned the provision.

“It’s shameful that elected officials would put their own narrow political agenda above the health and well-being of their constituents,” she said, reported the Des Moines Register. “It’s time for legislators to stop playing political games and work with — not against — Planned Parenthood to make sure young Iowans are healthy, now and into the future.”

Democrat state Sen. Liz Mathis added Planned Parenthood has helped to prevent unintended pregnancies.

“Every last person in this Senate wants to see abortions reduced,” Mathis said, according to Iowa Public Rado. “How do you think abortions are reduced? Birth control, sex education—that’s how they are reduced.”

Nevertheless, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, has been the focus of many scandals over the years, including Medicaid fraud, allegations of child sex abuse cover-up, and, more recently, alleged profiting from the harvesting and sale of body parts of babies aborted in its clinics.

In addition, Planned Parenthood has gone against the tide of the nation when it comes to abortions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report in November that revealed the number of abortions in the United States had reached its lowest level since the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. However, the number of abortions Planned Parenthood performs has increased. The abortion provider profits from abortions and, according to its own annual report released in January, performed 11,373 more abortions in 2017-2018 than the previous year, as it also took in $1.67 billion in revenue.

The sex ed programs provided by Planned Parenthood have drawn the ire of parents around the country and abroad. In April, parents in cities across the U.S. and in Canada, Australia, and the U.K. participated in a “Sex Ed Sit-Out” to protest what they called “pornographic, gender-bending” sex ed curricula taught by the taxpayer-funded abortion chain:

The Trump administration cut millions of dollars from Obama-era Teen Pregnancy Programs (TPP) grants to Planned Parenthood after data revealed the programs were not effective.

The Obama administration had eliminated all funding for sex education programs that stress abstinence, favoring, instead, comprehensive sex education (CSE) programs, promoted by Planned Parenthood and LGBT rights groups, that assume most adolescents are sexually active and that also normalize all teen sexual behavior:

Planned Parenthood condemns the Trump administration’s focus on sexual risk avoidance education rather than the abortion vendor’s preference for teaching the need for birth control, abortion, and LGBT sex issues.

Despite Planned Parenthood’s claims that their sex ed programs are effective, the CDC reported that sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases are at record highs.

In October, the American College of Pediatricians observed comprehensive sex ed (CSE) programs offered in America’s schools have not been effective at increasing long-term condom and contraceptive use in sexually active teens.

The physicians’ group noted that while studies suggest a range of factors – such as poverty, discrimination, and drug use – may contribute to STD increases, it is still reasonable to ask, “After forty years of widespread ‘comprehensive sex education’ (CSE) in American schools, why are STDs at epidemic levels among teenagers, and continuing to rise?”