School-based health centers: Tools the abortion industry uses to influence students

Framed as a way to provide basic health care to disadvantaged populations, the real purpose of taxpayer-funded school-based health centers (SBHCs) has always been to obtain access to students in order to provide “reproductive health care” for minors — without parental consent or knowledge.

These centers have ties to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, and the push for these SBHCs was led by a population control organization, the Center for Population Options — now known as Advocates for Youth (AFY) — one of the most prolific sex ed providers infiltrating public schools today.

Key Takeaways:

• Student-based health centers (SBHCs) were founded to provide reproductive and “gender-affirming” services to minors without parental consent or knowledge, under the guise of providing basic health care to impoverished students.

• Many SBHC sponsors are funded through the Title X federal family planning program.

• One expert, a former Planned Parenthood employee, stated that SBHCs are a “tool… used to institutionalize our children to live by the states’ morals, values, and desired behaviors.”

• The first SBHCs were established in the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to 2000, there were 1,100 SBHCs in the country; by 2015, there were 3,000.

• Pro-abortion groups have admitted that SBHCs have not definitively improved teen pregnancy rates.

The Details:

What is a SBHC?

A school-based health center (SBHC) is a clinic that provides comprehensive primary health services during school hours to children and adolescents, staffed by health professionals who are supposed to adhere to established standards, community practices, reporting laws, and other state regulations — including parental consent and notification laws that align with federal law. The alleged intent is to ensure that impoverished students have access to health care.

Unfortunately, some SBHCs are used as tools to promote a hypersexualized agenda, influencing youth who spend most of their time away from their parents in public schools. Many SBHC sponsors are funded through the Title X federal family planning program. (See a 2024 list of SBHCs in school districts nationwide here.)

These centers provide primary care services, mental health services (which may include prescriptions for medication), oral and vision care, vaccinations, ‘transgender counseling’ and referrals, reproductive services (birth control, IUDs, condoms, STI testing/treatment, pregnancy testing), and more.

Pro-abortion Indoctrination

While SBHCs are prohibited from providing abortions according to federal guidelines, many school clinics are directly sponsored by abortion providers. 

Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) called SBHCs a “vital resource,” boasting of minors’ easy access to birth control at many SBHC locations. As a sponsoring agency for many SBHCs, Planned Parenthood is a vocal supporter of the expansion of the program.

If the true intent of SBHCs is to provide health care access for impoverished children, why do they offer controversial things such as birth control and “gender-affirming care” — circumventing any parental knowledge?

Monica Cline, founder of “It Takes a Family” and Former Sex Educator and Title X training manager for Planned Parenthood, has the answer. She gives a stark warning to parents, telling Live Action News, “PARENTS BEWARE. SBHCs are one tool under state authority used to institutionalize our children to live by the states’ morals, values, and desired behaviors.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has advocated for abortions and eugenics-based ideology, eventually made SBHCs a part of its “Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child” (also referred to as “Whole child”) initiative, calling the clinics a “framework for addressing health in schools.”

According to the Heritage Foundation, this initiative is funded in part by groups that align themselves with pro-abortion ideology:

• United Nations 

• National Education Association (NEA)

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

The Timeline:

1960s & ’70s

• Coordinated effort to expand public school sex ed by the Center for Population Options (Advocates for Youth), SIECUS, and Planned Parenthood

• Center for Population Options (Advocates for Youth/AFY) contributes to creation of National Assembly on School-Based Health Care to use federal grants to put SBHCs in public schools nationwide 

• First SBHCs established in Dallas, Texas; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Cambridge, Massachusetts

1980s

• Growing public concern over AIDS spurs further expansion of SBHCs, involving The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS), led by Julia Graham Lear with help from the abortion-supportive Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

• 1985: RWJF funds Center for Population Options’ Adolescent Family Life Act (AFY) to document SBHC operations. SBHCs have grown from four to 18 urban locations.

• Within three years, Center for Population Options/AFY reports 400% increase in locations

• American Academy of Pediatrics is “instrumental” in expanding SBHC model, noting RWJF’s continued support through funding the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools

1990s

• Clinton administration significantly expands government-funded “family planning” including SBHCs, alongside financial support for abortion nationally and internationally through Title X

• 1993: President Clinton appoints Dr. Joycelyn Elders — a prominent advocate for SBHCs in Arkansas — to lead the U.S. Public Health Service. Dr. Glen Griffin calls the SBHC programs “adolescent reproductive counseling program(s)” that included “pro-choice information.”

• During Elders’ controversial and brief tenure, she dismissed pro-life views, stating Americans needed to “get over this love affair with the fetus.”

• 1994: Elders expresses support for a “nationwide distribution program for contraceptive devices, birth control pills, and condoms” in schools; conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh nicknames her the “Condom Queen”

• 1994: Clinton administration removes Elders from her position after she spoke at a UN conference, expressing support for teaching children about masturbation, calling it “something that is a part of human sexuality” that she felt would “reduce unintended pregnancy and reduce disease.”

• By 1998-99, more than 1,100 SBHCs are reported nationwide

2000s-Current

• 2015: Guttmacher Institute reports 3,000 SBHCs nationwide

• Guttmacher admits SBHCs “may indeed provide nondirective pregnancy counseling and referral, and abortion care,” noting, “a number of SBHCs are working within their communities to overcome opposition—and they are meeting with some success.” 

Reality Check:

SBHCs and teen pregnancy

Despite the initial aim of SBHCs to prevent teen pregnancy, little evidence suggests they reduce youth sexual engagement or pregnancy rates.

Similar to explicit sex education (linked to increased promiscuity and risky sexual behavior), some studies indicate that “reproductive health care” in SBHCs has not improved national teen pregnancy rates. Guttmacher admitted, “The evidence on the impact of SBHCs on adolescent sexual and reproductive health remains limited.”

A 1994 review by Education Training Research (ETR, a Planned Parenthood education arm) found it “unclear whether school-based or school-linked reproductive health services… significantly decrease pregnancy or birth rates.” 

A 2015 Contraceptive Technology Update report indicated that 64% of SBHCs provided “contraceptive counseling.” In the same year, Guttmacher reported that 37% of SBHCs nationwide dispensed contraceptives on-site and 72% offered “sexual orientation counseling.” This occurred while, according to Guttmacher, the number of SBHCs prohibited from providing birth control pills and condoms within their clinics continued to significantly decrease.

Though parents and guardians in more pro-life leaning states may believe SBHCs are not prescribing hormonal birth control in their states, SBHCs contracted with Title X-based sponsors very well could be — like they are in Texas. 

Recent Alarming Cases 

2019: A 16-year-old student in a Maryland school fell ill after a school nurse incorrectly inserted Nexplanon, a long-term hormonal birth control, into her arm. While the student’s doctor required the mother’s consent to remove the contraception, no parental knowledge or consent was needed to insert the drug. According to reports, the Baltimore City Health Department stated that over 160 students in their public schools received birth control during the 2017-2018 school year.

2024: A proposal for a SBHC was presented to parents and administrators at a school district in Maine, promising accessible health care. However, parental inquiries uncovered that the clinic’s services would include “transgender services” and “reproductive health care,” provided without parental consent. SBHCs in other schools in the state were already referring students for abortions, prescribing birth control and anti-depressant medications like Zoloft, and facilitating transgender services — all without parental notification, according to local reporting. 

The Bottom Line:

If school-based clinics continue growing in number across the country with easy and direct access to children, lawmakers may want to consider removing sponsorships for SBHCs with any Title X family planning-funded hospitals or clinics like Planned Parenthood. 

Go Deeper:

Read more here about the very real risks of various hormonal birth control methods which Planned Parenthood downplays (including increased risk of potentially fatal blood clots, stroke, certain cancers, weight gain, etc.) and which SBHCs offer.

Read more here about the risks and potentially devastating, long-lasting effects of hormones and highly profitable “gender-affirming” care, including surgeries, some of which are offered by Planned Parenthood as well as SBHCs.