Pro-abortion educational groups are pushing for teachers to advocate for abortion in their classrooms — and some schools are getting on board.
An eye-opening article in a recent issue of the education magazine Rethinking Schools claimed that educators have a duty to teach children about the alleged benefits of abortion in response to the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Teaching children that abortion is a ‘right’
As reported by National Review, the magazine stated that the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision calls for an “all-hands-on-deck response to ensure abortion for those who want and need it.” It continued that the “most critical role” for a teacher “is to combat the silence, shame, and misinformation around abortion.” Teachers should — said the magazine — discuss abortion as a right, highlight positive abortion stories, and share literature surrounding “sex, sexual violence, pregnancy, forced pregnancy, sterilization, abortion, and miscarriage.” The magazine’s editors write, “if we are to fight the criminalization of abortion, we also must fight its stigmatization. And that means teaching about it.”
They add, “Abortion is often framed too narrowly — legalistically (a right, a law) or medically (a procedure). Instead, we should heed Black feminists who understand abortion to be part of a larger movement for reproductive justice.”
In addition, the advocacy arm of the National Education Association (NEA) protested the overturning of Roe v. Wade, claiming that the “right to autonomy” is “not only special to us, but to our students’ futures.” In the NEA’s article, Abriana White, a senior at Michigan’s Wayne State University, in Detroit, and vice president of Aspiring Educators of Michigan, said the state of democracy today is “unfair.” Change, she said, is “going to start in the classroom.”
New sex-ed legislation
As reported by National Review, that change has already begun. In California, legislators introduced a bill package on “reproductive justice and abortion rights.” One of the bills — AB 598 — will require school districts to participate in the California Healthy Kids Survey, which gives legislators information to ensure they update the sex-ed they give children. It includes a module on sexual and reproductive health care.
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks said AB 598 will update existing sex-ed requirements in the state to ensure that middle and high school children receive guidance on birth control and abortions.
“This year I am doing a bill to ensure that our young people have not just education around reproductive care, but they know how to access such care,” said Wicks. “My bill expands our sexual reproductive education requirements to ensure our young people have knowledge, and know where to, and how to receive abortion care along with contraception care and all the other care that our young people deserve to know about it.”
But how much do people really know about what abortion does to a human being?
Under the bill, teachers would be required to give students as young as 12 “information about obtaining abortions during different stages of pregnancy…” Teachers would also ensure students “receive a physical or digital resource detailing the local resources” for abortion and teachers would have to keep a “positive” attitude as well. But it is difficult to truly understanding what abortion does and remain “positive” about it:
In Wisconsin, the Wauwatosa School District is planning to implement a new curriculum, which includes teaching eighth-grade students that abortion is a normal response to pregnancy. The curriculum includes a Planned Parenthood-backed AMAZE video titled, “So, You Think You’re Pregnant,” which promotes abortion.
The curriculum continues to push abortion to students through high school, including an assignment for 12th graders called, “Why Would Someone Choose to End a Pregnancy?” This assignment has students “list as many reasons why you think a teenager who discovers they are pregnant might choose to have an abortion, and why they might choose not to.”
Pushing the agenda on college students
In an opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed, Andrew Joseph Pegoda said abortion is not something to debate. He also expressed fear that, following the enactment of the Texas ‘heartbeat law,’ a college student who has an abortion might be “encouraged” to do so during a routine lecture, and therefore, the professor could be sued for aiding them.
“To provide some background: abortion is an appropriate, relevant topic in a variety of college classes, including biology, history, political science, sociology and women’s studies. Lessons might address how abortion has always been around and will always exist,” he wrote. “Coverage might further include that when legal, abortion is a safe, legitimate procedure; mandating that abortions go underground only causes harm to pregnant individuals, and that harm spreads.” He further chose to compare abortion (deliberate killing) with miscarriage (accidental/natural death), saying, “Lessons might also acknowledge that about 30 percent of pregnancies end in natural miscarriages (also called spontaneous abortions) — a pregnant body does not automatically mean a future human.”
Legalizing abortion has not made it safer, as is made evident by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC, in 1972, when abortion had already been made legal in several states, there were 39 deaths from illegal abortions, and 24 deaths from legal abortions. By 1973, the year Roe v. Wade was decided, the CDC reported that more women died from legal abortions than illegal abortions (25 v. 19).
And while some pregnancies do end in miscarriage, every preborn child at every stage of development is a human — not a “future human.” The accidental or natural deaths of some of these children do not justify intentionally killing any of them for any reason.
In addition, many horrific acts like abortion have “always been around and will always exist,” as Pegoda states… but that doesn’t mean that legislators should legalize them, applaud them, or find ways to make such evil acts “safer” for those committing them. After all, murder has “always been around,” too — but laws are put in place to protect human life, and those human lives in the womb should be equally protected as well.
A pro-abortion curriculum for students appears to be a natural next step to the new sex-ed that seeks to steer children toward sex at younger ages.
