Pro-life and Christian advocacy groups are bringing to light what they consider the dangers of Planned Parenthood’s sex education program, which is designed to be taught to children under and over 10. The pro-life group American Life League has shared the curriculum’s toolkit, which outlines for teachers the important information to give out to their students for “comprehensive sex education” (CSE). For children under 10, some of the “key learnings” include attractions for people with “diverse gender identities,” sexual activity is found in different relationships like marriage, dating, and sex work, and touching your body for pleasure should be done in privacy. The curriculum also states that teaching children to be abstinent until marriage is “unrealistic” because “Not everyone will choose to get married, and many countries have restrictions on who is able to get married (for example, members of same sex relationships).”

“Public schools are allowing the organization that killed almost 393,000 preborn children by abortion in 2023 unfettered access to thousands of elementary, middle, and high school students in their classrooms and it is spending taxpayer dollars to do so,” stated Katie Brown, American Life League’s national director. The group also highlighted Planned Parenthood’s abortion curriculum for schools, which encourages students to be advocates for abortion access and describes abortion as a common medical procedure. In the CSE, children under 10 have an activity entitled “Walking in her shoes: the decision to end a pregnancy” to discuss why women and girls have abortions. American Life League believes Planned Parenthood promotes promiscuous lifestyles to line its own pockets with the money for the abortions that come from unwanted pregnancies.

Writing for Live Action, former sex worker Bettina di Flore slammed the curriculum’s promotion of sex work. “As a former prostitute and someone who cares deeply about children, I find this notion highly objectionable. I know from personal experience that the world of so-called ‘commercial sex work’ is founded on exploitation and is devoid of true happiness – a world which nobody with children’s legitimate best interests at heart should wish to promote, or even condone, to these innocents,” wrote di Flore. “Simply because sex occurs does not mean there is true intimacy. ‘Intimacy’ is defined as ‘a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person.’ There can be no true closeness or familiarity in a relationship where, most often, the individuals involved don’t even know one another’s real names,” she later added.  Michele Hendrickson, Students for Life of America’s director, told The Christian Post that it’s important for parents to be aware of what is being taught in their children’s schools. “The most important thing you can do is be active at your school board,” she said. “Those are open meetings for a reason; they want to hear from parents.”