The fierce battle between the Culture of Death and the Culture of Life is heightened now that there is a new administration in charge. In the realm of sex education, the stakes could not be any higher. The prize for the winner is the very souls of our children. God gave them to us for just a little while. It is our duty, as parents, to protect them and direct them toward the road of salvation. The devil, however, roams the earth seeking to destroy their innocence. The resulting knowledge of too much information too soon can set the course for their entire lives. At the very least it robs them of their childhood and exposes them to ideas that we are all admonished not to entertain.
With the new sex education priorities rolled out by the Trump administration, we are reminded of the atrocities Planned Parenthood carries out on our children. The new emphasis on abstinence and even natural family planning, gives renewed hope that our children will once again be given moral instruction. It hasn’t always been so and, in recent years, we have seen the rise of perversion like never before – at earlier ages than ever before. Much of that can be attributed to Planned Parenthood’s encroachment on public education.
New Title X Policy
That the new provisions in the Title X grant offer hope of positive change seems provides a certain hopeful optimism. Yet, how many children have already been desensitized toward promiscuity and perverse sexual activity? Who knows how long it will take to attempt to walk back the damage already done. In case you have missed the debauchery on the part of the abortion giant, take a look at a few of the perverse ideas Planned Parenthood (PP) has woven into the lives of our children.
Sex Education According to Planned Parenthood
- LifeNews recently reportedthat Planned Parenthood’s booklet for HIV-positive youth, “Healthy, Happy and Hot,” coaches young people to believe that it is their “human right” to betray their partner(s) by withholding their HIV positive diagnosis.
- There have been recent reports of parents being kicked out of their children’s sex education class for complaining about the poor quality of the program – a program that is PP based.
- Live Action’s undercover video series exposed instances of PP employees encouraging pornography, sexual violence, shopping for sex toys, and many other forms of sexual deviance. On the video a PP counselor can be heard instructing a 15-year-old girl, “Now, if it’s consensual, again, completely normal…things that happen in “Fifty Shades of Grey” all center around pain, and your response to pain, and submission”.
- Multiple resources intended for children and teenagers, concerning sexual activity, are also published by the abortion giant. While they claim that these materials are “age appropriate” sex education, they are made available to children as young as 4 years old.
New Sex Education Policies
According to reports from Politico, “the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will offer $260 million in Title X grants to qualified health care providers”. The application will prioritize the types of programs that do not promote risky sexual behavior for students and young adults. Since PP does not offer this type of program, they will not be eligible. Other abortion groups will likewise not be qualified. The proposed criteria promises some vital changes.
- Inclusion of natural family planning methods, or fertility awareness, among the available programs are stressed.
- To be considered, the applicants must also promote “positive family relationships for the purpose of increasing family participation in family planning and health decision-making”.
- Applicants are called to ensure promotion and emphasis on social research pertaining to “healthy relationships, to committed, safe, stable, healthy marriages and the benefits of avoiding sexual risk or returning to a sexually risk-free status, especially (but not only) when communicating with adolescents.”
- A welcome first time obligation is to ensure annual staff training in response to abuse (both child and sexual), domestic violence, and human trafficking. The requirement includes monitoring and reporting.
- Those who receive the grant will be prohibited from using the funds for abortion.
What a Difference an Administration Makes
According to Valerie Huber, acting deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Population Affairs at HHS, “This is a program that’s important to the administration and we think it’s really important to make some meaningful changes to extend the coverage of the program”.
Unlike the requirements during the Obama administration, which emphasized all forms of contraception, this new policy includes fertility awareness along with a broad range of family planning.
Last year the Trump administration cut millions of dollars by eliminating Planned Parenthood’s ineffective Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. According to HHS spokesman Mark Vafiades, “There is very little evidence that the program (PP) was successful”. As a matter of fact, there is little support for the theory that Planned Parenthood’s programs have been effective in reducing sexual health risks or teen pregnancies.
The Opposition Reacts
As with any moral battle, the opposing forces are quickly dispatched and ready to rage against any ground we gain. The Culture of Death is poised and ready to fight any progress made toward the Culture of Life. As a consequence of this announcement, pro-abortion groups are weighing in with their objections. Dawn Laguens, Executive VP of PP responded to the news, “The Trump-Pence administration is quietly taking aim at access to birth control…The last thing anyone wants is for Donald Trump or Mike Pence to weigh in on her sex life — but this announcement essentially invites them into the bedroom”. There was also criticism from other pro-abortion leaders because artificial birth control was not promoted. Other pro-abortion groups criticized the new goals, claiming the government wants to take away birth control and push religious beliefs on people through abstinence-based programs. Huber was also criticized by abortion proponents, citing her past work with an organization that emphasizes abstinence.
Lowering Abortion Rates
In his recent column at the National Catholic Register, Do Democratic Presidents Cause Fewer Abortions to Occur?, Dave Armstrong makes a strong case for the pro-life benefits of Republican leaders. Apparently, political administrations create a downturn in abortions. Both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Guttmacher Institute unintentionally support this claim with their reports. In addition, a correlation can be made by citing Supreme Court nominations and pro-life bills passed by pro-life representation in government. All of these developments provide an ever improving picture in both sex education and the resulting abortion rates.
Hope for Our Children
These new Title X stipulations breathe new life into the hope for a better, more moral world for our children. While it would be preferable to leave sex education solely in the hands of parents, this is a vast improvement. Seeing evidence of the Trump administration’s efforts toward a society that respects life is heartening. That they seek to fund programs that effectively teach sexual risk avoidance and a more pro-life vision has the potential to counter the ever encroaching Culture of Death. Here, again, lower abortion rates come into play.
Let us also not discount the value of the millions of prayers, Rosaries, and Masses that have been offered, advocating for life.
While we may wish that the complete defunding of Planned Parenthood and an end to abortion happens in one fell swoop, I dare say that, sometimes, the more gradual chipping away at the evil among us can be an effective alternative. Often, the virtue of patience plays a role in what happens and how quickly it happens. All in all, I am grateful for these improvements in our pro-life outlook. May we see many more positive strides and see the end of abortion in our lifetime.
13 thoughts on “Sex Education: Chipping Away at the Culture of Death”
So I guess the government’s new message is, “do as we say and not as the president does in his own life.” Comprehensive sex education has been linked to the significant drop in the abortion rate and rates of sexual activity among teenagers in the US – and affirmed even further by the substantially lower rates in Europe where comprehensive sex ed is the norm. We will know soon enough if abstinence only results in a continued drop in rates of sexual behavior and abortions – or not.
As a Catholic, I would certainly expect our kids to be taught a perspective much different from the one Trump seems to exhibit. As for a reduction in abortion and sexual activity, I’d have to see a source. Differing reports depending on who is doing the reporting are evident. In fact some reports eliminate states like California altogether.
The plan in question is not abstinence only, but includes natural family planning and other options as well. The frequency of abortion is also becoming more difficult to determine as chemical abortions, via medication, are often not included in abortion reporting. These methods create an almost impossible scenario for counting.
All in all, anyone following Church teaching should be supportive of encouraging teens to live a chaste life and not speed up their adult activity. Low expectations from adults have done much damage to all members of the Body of Christ. Reaching for the highest goal leads to better morality.
Do the means always justify the ends?
The Trump administration is “pro-life”? Advocating torture? Racism? The death penalty? Misogyny? Boasting about sexual assault? Demonizing the most vulnerable? Bombing innocent civilians? Birgit, do you really want to be on that side??
I respectfully disagree with your analysis of Trump. As a woman, I am not going to act like a shrinking violet and have vapors over perceived misogyny. As a rape victim, I know the difference between sexual assault (rape) and the behavior of a cad. However, if that were the criteria for a good leader then we would find few if any candidates – nor would any previous presidents have won the qualifications. Yet, no matter what their personal sins, leaders are still capable of producing good laws and protecting a nation. For these successes they are to be commended.
Nowhere have I seen Trump bombing innocent civilians – unless you mean the casualties of war, where the enemy hides among women, children, and heavily populated areas. Demonizing the vulnerable? Source? Advocating torture? Maybe our differences revolve around what we consider torture.
Abortion is an intrinsic evil and can never be condoned. On the other hand, many other issues are a matter for personal discernment. You and I may not agree on how to address the death penalty (read the Catechism), the poor, or war – yet the Church allows us that freedom of conscience. The well-formed conscience of one person may not necessarily come to the same conclusion as that of another.
The Trump administration has done more toward the Culture of Life than any other president. The theme of my post illustrates just one way. I’m good with that. The less of our tax dollars go to abortion giant, Planned Parenthood, the better. Trump may not be a saint, but he’s getting the job done in many areas – abortion, jobs, business, religious freedom. Etc.
Trump has advocated bombing indiscriminately. So do you. “where the enemy hides among women, children, and heavily populated areas” . . . Yes, these are brown people about whom you know little. The Christian thing is not to bomb there. Do you believe killing is wrong?
Demonizing the vulnerable: undocumented aliens, who of course are LESS likely to be criminals than the rest of us.
Trump advocating torture, not only of “the bad guys” plus their families, is easy to find. See, for example: http://time.com/4247397/donald-trump-waterboarding-torture/
Finally, I think even your concern for the unborn is suspect. Trump rewards the rich and (if you’ve been reading the news) has been cutting back aid to the poor. The number of desperate, poor pregnant women will increase. So will abortion. This kind of Christianity —
https://robertmgoldstein.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/republican-jesus-16.jpg
— is the kind he practices and it seems perfectly ok with you.
Let me put a question to you: how bloodthirsty and cruel does a “pro-life” politician have to be before you say, “That’s enough!!”
“That which can be asserted without PROOF can be dismissed without proof.” C. Hitchens …..many assumptions without data…..
You might want to read some of attached the links. In addition, some common sense thoughts about naive young people being instructed by a predatory organization, bent on securing more ‘customers’ may also come in handy.
“LifeNews recently reported that Planned Parenthood’s booklet for HIV-positive youth, “Healthy, Happy and Hot,” coaches young people to believe that it is their “human right” to betray their partner(s) by withholding their HIV positive diagnosis.”
Not true. See pp. 5 – 6 of the pamphlet, which gives a number of helpful ways to disclose to your partner, while quite properly objecting to laws that criminalize *not* disclosing.
“There have been recent reports of parents being kicked out of their children’s sex education class for complaining about the poor quality of the program – a program that is PP based.”
Cite?
“Live Action’s undercover video series exposed instances of PP employees encouraging pornography, sexual violence, shopping for sex toys, and many other forms of sexual deviance. On the video a PP counselor can be heard instructing a 15-year-old girl, “Now, if it’s consensual, again, completely normal…things that happen in “Fifty Shades of Grey” all center around pain, and your response to pain, and submission”.”
Live Action sent girls to ask graphic questions about these matters and the PP counselors answered them truthfully. They were only responding to the questions.
“Multiple resources intended for children and teenagers, concerning sexual activity, are also published by the abortion giant. While they claim that these materials are “age appropriate” sex education, they are made available to children as young as 4 years old.”
Cite?
There is was no point in reading further.
You might also consider that encouraging children of any age to experiment with sexual activities is a recipe for disaster. Add the twisted words and outright misinformation peddled by PP and unsuspecting women will become unwitting customers for PP’s real motivation – gain more desperate pregnant customers to pressure into abortion.
Examples and citations here: http://www.iowartl.org/get-the-facts/planned-parenthood/planned-parenthood-s-sex-education/
PP’s information is accurate. The language Iowa Right to Life prefers to answer such questions is loaded with value judgments and culture-war slogans, and will turn young people away. Young folks respect when they are being told the truth, and are fast to catch on if they think they’re being played.
Some of the quotes, I can’t find on PP websites (for example, “it’s possible the fetus cannot feel pain at any point in the pregnancy”).
This is Planned Parenthood’s idea of ‘abstinence’ – “The only 100% certain way to avoid pregnancy is to not have penis-in-vagina sex, or do any sexual stuff where sperm can touch a vulva or vagina (this is called abstinence). And the only 100% certain way to avoid STDs is to not do any sexual stuff that involves body fluids or skin-to-skin touching with another person (including oral, anal, and vaginal sex). https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/teens/preventing-pregnancy-stds
“Comprehensive sexuality education refers to K-12 programs that cover a broad range of topics…” https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/for-educators/what-sex-education
Teaching a supposed 15-year-old girl about sexual violence, as per the video, is equal to facilitating statutory rape – not to mention providing abortions to underage girls with adult partners. There is no reporting by PP.
First paragraph: true statement.
Second paragraph: good idea. Even you now violate Pius XI’s and XII’s various admonitions against educating children about the specifics of sex.
As for the last, again, the PP rep was only answering the question. One wonders what was going through the minds of hte LifeNews staff as they were teaching and rehearsing this 15-year-old girl to say such things.
And of course, if the girls knew the abortions would be reported, they wouldn’t go to PP. They’d use a coat hanger instead.
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