Washington Examiner | Planned Parenthood plans to infiltrate high schools

Planned Parenthood announced it will be opening 50 clinics in Los Angeles high schools last week. This is just the organization’s latest attempt to infuse its values into the public school system.

Though the new “Wellbeing Centers” stop short of offering surgical abortions, they will provide emergency contraception, STI testing and treatment, and a wide range of birth control options. Funded by a $10 million grant from Los Angeles County and $6 million from Planned Parenthood, 50 clinics will open over the next three years, available to more than 75,000 students.

Students can walk into the clinics anytime — including during class. Per California law, minors can receive emergency contraception and other forms of birth control, and healthcare providers are not allowed to inform their parents without the minor’s permission.

The clinics will also train hundreds of teens to be “peer advocates” about “safe sex and relationships” and will provide “pregnancy counseling.” Pro-life advocates believe these are thinly-veiled efforts to drive more business to Planned Parenthood’s abortion-providing clinics.

“If LAUSD truly cares about the health of our daughters (and sons) it would not give unfettered access to our kids to an organization that directly benefits from unplanned pregnancies,” 28-year California public school teacher and founder of the nonprofit organization For Kids and Country Rebecca Friedrichs said in a statement.

“District officials are quick to point out these clinics won’t technically offer abortions on-premises, but no one is fooled that abortion won’t be heavily pushed on our daughters and sons by an organization that has made billions off the macabre practice,” she concluded.

This move builds upon the controversial sex education framework California forced into its public schools in April. Planned Parenthood helped draft and lobby for this effort — which pushes schools to teach young children about gender identity and how to perform certain types of sexual acts.

Roughly 200 parents marched on Sacramento against the curriculum before it was enacted, and a petition in Fremont, California, garnered more than 8,000 signatures. The outcry over Planned Parenthood’s new in-school clinics could be even louder.

Parents should be alarmed by Planned Parenthood’s latest effort to usurp their authority as the primary educators of their children, and the Los Angeles school system’s acquiescence. As progressive groups continue to co-opt public schools, parents will increasingly face a decision about whether they must leave the system — or risk the state deciding it knows best for their children.