(CBN NEWS) The nation’s largest abortion provider is suing the Trump administration over its abstinence-only approach to sex education.
Last week, several affiliates of Planned Parenthood filed lawsuits against the US Department of Health and Human Services, saying its Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is “ineffective” and “misleading” for children.
“The lawsuit seeks to protect the future of the TPP program,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement.
“If successful, the lawsuit will ensure that the TPP program maintains its evidence-based principles and that new grantees are not forced to push dangerous (abstinence-only-until-marriage) curriculums,” the organization warned.
The Associated Press reports the suits were filed in federal courts in New York City and Spokane, Washington, by four different affiliates covering New York City and the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington.
“Young people have the right to the information and skills they need to protect their health,” Dawn Laguens, vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a press release.
“The Trump-Pence administration is trying to impose their abstinence-only agenda on young people across the country,” she charged, noting that evidence shows such programs do not work.
But supporters of the TPP program say it has been instrumental in helping to reduce the teen pregnancy rate 41 percent since 2010, the AP reports.
Valerie Huber, chief of staff for the Office of Assistant Secretary of Health, has complained about the lack of federal funding for abstinence education. She’s also questioned the effectiveness of teen pregnancy prevention grants.
Huber, a longtime proponent of abstinence education, noted back in 2012 that contraception doesn’t necessarily make for safe sex.
“We think it’s very important for teens to know that even if they use a condom or contraception, that doesn’t make sex safe. It doesn’t mean they won’t get pregnant. It doesn’t mean they won’t have an STD. It doesn’t mean they won’t have any negative consequences,” Politico quoted Huber as saying in a 2012 speech to the Bringing America Back to Life Symposium.
“We think that young people need to know information that is going to help them make the best decision — and that best decision is to wait,” she said.
Both Huber and HHS Secretary Alex Azar are also named as defendants in the lawsuits.
Source: CBN News
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