Taxpayer-funded sex ed group starts ‘club’ telling teens to reject pro-life ideology

Planned Parenthood-backed sex ed group Advocates for Youth (AFY) has launched a revamp and rebranding of its sex ed with a ‘club’ which warns teens that “pro-life” individuals are “red flags” who hold unscientific views.

In early May, AFY announced the launch of “The Busy Bodies Club,” a virtual “PSA-style” campaign which promises “easy-to-understand, bite-sized knowledge to debunk myths around sex education, reproductive health, LGBTQIA+ rights, abortion access, HIV awareness, and racial justice.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Advocates for Youth’s new ‘club’ attempts to convince students to treat any “pro-life” information as unscientific while recruiting students to its online platform and to its on-campus advocacy.

• Planned Parenthood and AFY get millions from taxpayers and spend millions on sex education that skirts parental safeguards and laws meant to protect minors from harmful pro-abortion and transgender ideologies.

THE DETAILS:

The Club promises to help youth “sift through all the online info on sexual health and reproductive rights topics.” Right now, the Club is mostly digital, but the group’s publicity for the Club states “we may have some in-person opportunities to get involved very soon.” Those who want to become ‘members’ simply have to subscribe to an email list.

Why “busybodies”? The publicity states that though the term has been used mainly to denote someone “too interested in things that do not involve them,” the group wants to “reclaim[] the term” and “democratize sex ed and make sure everyone has access to the info they deserve” (emphases added). The group, of course, had to add that they think “getting busy with your body is a great euphemism for sex.”

It is clear that this “digital community” intends to reach youth anywhere, regardless of state laws aiming to protect children from harmful Planned Parenthood-affiliated sex ed ideology.

The Club’s first sex ed modules focus on birth control, abortion access, and ‘trans health’:

WHY IT MATTERS:

1. Advocates for Youth uses millions of taxpayer dollars to promote its agenda, which is fully aligned with that of Planned Parenthood.

• AFY has received more than $32 million in grants issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since 1995 [Source: HHS Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website]

• Interestingly, AFY claims to have recently rejected $1.2 million in federal funding under the current Trump administration. It remains unclear whether AFY intends to decline funding from both HHS and the CDC. 

• Planned Parenthood (which supports AFY) has spent $166 million on sex ed since 2021-22, based on its annual reports. From 2021-2024, Planned Parenthood reported over $186 million spent on “advocacy” promoting abortion.

• AFY’s 2024 990 form shows that over $7.5 million was spent for lobbying and “grassroots” activities from 2020-2023.   

2. Groups aligned with Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion, pro-transgender agenda are looking for ways to indoctrinate youth while bypassing parental consent requirements.

Despite continued growing efforts by parental rights groups and state lawmakers to guard against Planned Parenthood-backed sex education curriculum and protect children from explicit pornographic materials, members of the Future of Sex Education (FoSE) coalition continue to expand their efforts to reach youth through digital campaigns.

They work around parental consent requirements while receiving taxpayer funds — and turn youth into paid activists who spread anti-life propaganda on school campuses and in communities. Much like AFY, Planned Parenthood targets and trains minors through its “Generation Action” program, often working in conjunction with AFY and sharing literature “resources” for participants.

Alongside Planned Parenthood, AFY remains a leader in creating sex education curriculum, not just in the U.S. but internationally by collaborating with the United Nations and UNICEF sex education programs and initiatives. 

3. They’re recruiting students to spread their ideology on school campuses.

AFY continues to promote its “Youth Activist Network,” recently closing application submissions for its year-long fellowship training program. Each approved applicant receives an all-inclusive paid trip to Washington, D.C., and a $600 stipend per semester “to bring gender-neutral housing to their campus, pass state legislation expanding abortion access, urge their campuses to adopt better policies to combat sexual assault, advocate for better HIV policies in their cities, educate their communities about LGBTQ Muslims, and so much more.”

According to its website, AFY youth activists are trained to bring back “tools” to deploy into their communities and school campuses, such as “Youth Abortion Support Collective (ASC) Resources”  and “Abortion Access on Campus Organizing Toolkits.” These “tools” contain information on “self managed abortions” and contact information for abortion-seeking minors to obtain “judicial bypass” around parental consent.

But no pro-abortion kit would truly be complete without information and worksheets on how to avoid “fake abortion clinics” — more properly known as pregnancy resource centers. 

According to their documents, AFY also trains teens and youth activists to become “abortion doulas” and to advocate for abortion access on college campuses— dozens of which are expanding access to abortion drugs as well as ’emergency contraception’. 

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth (AFY), and other members of the Future of Sex Education (FoSE) coalition use taxpayer money to undermine parents and legislators seeking to shield minors from inappropriate sexualized content. It is well past time to defund Planned Parenthood.