Social conservative group RightNow has started a petition demanding that the Saskatchewan government defund Planned Parenthood after the organization made sexually explicit cards available to grade 9 students.
Planned Parenthood was suspended from presenting in schools over the cards, but continues to receive funding from Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health. It has received over one million dollars from the province in the past three years.
The “Sex from A-Z” cards developed by the AIDS Committee of Toronto with assistance from the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE) featured explicit language about sex, sexual acts and certain fetishes.
The cards touched on urine fetishes, defecating on sexual partners, being “attracted to one’s television set,” the oral exchange of seminal fluid, “raw sex” and glory holes.
The sex cards also discussed porn, touching on “Money Shot” – “the cum shot in porn movies, when the oiled-up cowboy ejaculates.” One of the cards also claims that “there’s a lot of different kinds of porn – there’s something for everyone.”
In response to backlash from parents, the school division said that the cards were not part of the main presentation, and Planned Parenthood apologized for what had happened.
However, the apology doesn’t cut it for RightNow.
In an interview with True North, RightNow co-founder and executive director Alissa Golob said, “I don’t think you ever have to have a specific belief system or religion to understand and acknowledge that that’s just disgusting.”
“Targeting children with sexually explicit material doesn’t belong in our society, let alone in our schools,” she added.
Golob said she finds the incident involving Planned Parenthood to be “not surprising given that the founder, Margaret Sanger, has a very terrible history with regards to eugenics.”
“I don’t think that Planned Parenthood could ever truly be seen as a socially moral organization, whether it comes to abortion or just sexual topics in general,” said Golob. “If they’re bad enough or if they’re egregious enough to suspend their behaviour in the schools, then (the province) shouldn’t be funding their activity with taxpayer dollars either.
Planned Parenthood had shared its disappointment with the Saskatchewan government suspending them from schools, as they believe that “people of all ages have a right to that information about their sexual health.”
“It’s a little disconcerting that this decision was made so quickly and without consultation with us to establish that this resource was not part of what we were teaching,” said Executive Director Julian Wotherspoon to the Canadian Press. “We’re hoping they will follow up with us at some point.”
Golob does not believe that Planned Parenthood should be allowed back into schools.
“Regardless of what they say, this is a regular attitude that they have towards sexuality,” she claimed. “It’s just the fact that they got caught this time.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed near kids, period. Anyone who wants to target children should stay away from kids and stay out of the schools.”
Golob says many people have been supportive of RightNow’s anti-planned parenthood campaign.
“We’re getting really good feedback, and we have hundreds of petition signatures. I think we’re close to a thousand and the overwhelming majority, like 80%, are from Saskatchewan.”
RightNow has traditionally focused its efforts on opposing abortion. However, they have also recently taken on initiatives to support parental rights.
The group also has a petition on their website in support of New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, amid him facing backlash from woke individuals over changes to education policy 713 – which make parental consent a requirement for children under the age of 16 to officially change their name or gender at school.
Golob explained that “when issues are in the news, such as what Planned Parenthood did in Regina, or what Blaine Higgs is doing in New Brunswick, we’re always going to seize those opportunities to find more like-minded people to build the database and help get more socially conservative candidates elected in those areas and elsewhere.”
It should be noted that, unlike Planned Parenthood in the United States, Planned Parenthood Regina does not perform abortions. They do, however, support abortion and help out pregnant women who wish to end the life of their fetus.
Neither Planned Parenthood nor Saskatchewan’s Minister of Health returned True North’s request for comment in time for publication.
