Saskatchewan Government Suspends Planned Parenthood Presentations in Schools

Saskatchewan Education Minister Dustin Duncan speaks to the media after the budget is presented in Regina, on March 22, 2023. (Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press)

Saskatchewan’s education minister has suspended Planned Parenthood from making presentations in classrooms after the organization took “inappropriate” sexual material to a high school.

Dustin Duncan said Thursday that the material, a pamphlet, was recently obtained by a Grade 9 student at the school in Lumsden, north of Regina.

It included graphic, sexual words beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

Planned Parenthood did not present the pamphlet to the classroom, and the student obtained it from a side table.

“It’s just completely inappropriate to be in the classroom, and so that’s the basis for today’s directive,” Duncan said.

The minister read out some but not all of the pamphlet’s contents to reporters.

“I’m sorry I don’t feel appropriate, frankly, saying that. But I think it gives you a sense that if I feel uncomfortable saying that to the media … then I think it’s pretty much, certainly I think for me, an indication that it probably doesn’t need to be in the classroom.”

Julian Wotherspoon, executive director at Planned Parenthood Regina, said the organization does not normally bring such material into a classroom.

She said the pamphlet, which was created by a third-party, was inadvertently mixed with other pamphlets on the table in the Lumsden school. They are typically given to more mature audiences.

“They’re a reputable source for material that is engaging, informative, sex-positive and stigma-reducing, so we have a lot of their stuff around,” she said of the group that created the pamphlet.

Wotherspoon said while she understands the suspension, she’s also disappointed.

“It’s a little disconcerting that this decision was made so quickly and without consultation with us to establish that this resource was not part of what we were teaching,” she said. “We’re hoping they will follow up with us at some point.”

Duncan said it’s possible Planned Parenthood could again be allowed to present in schools once the ministry completes a review.

He said the review, which should wrap up by September, would look at sexual education material across school divisions to ensure it’s all appropriate.

Duncan added he also wants parents to be informed when their children are learning about sex.

Wotherspoon said Planned Parenthood, during its school presentations, had been discussing with students contraceptives, sexually transmitted infections and sexual consent while a teacher was present in the classroom.

“We believe that people of all ages have a right to that information about their sexual health,” she said.