BASED: Canadian province of Saskatchewan BANS Planned Parenthood from public schools

Planned Parenthood has been blocked from presenting in Saskatchewan schools after "ABC sex cards" were made available to students in Grade 9 at Lumsden High School.

Saskatchewan Minister of Education Dustin Duncan said a review would be done of school materials and of the process on informing parents of what their children are learning in the classroom, according to the Regina Leader-Post.

Duncan vowed to review "all ministry documents as it relates to resources and curriculum related to health and wellness classes to ensure that they are indeed age appropriate."

In regard to the material in question, which Planned Parenthood Regina executive director Julian Wotherspoon called a "tongue-in-cheek" sexual alphabet from a third party, Duncan said "I believe, as Minister of Education, frankly, as a parent, it is completely inappropriate to be in a classroom."

After reading some of the cards’ captions, Duncan said, "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, and likely some of that won’t be broadcast because of the nature of it, then I think it’s pretty much certain for me, is an indication that it probably doesn’t need to be in the classroom."

Wotherspoon said Planned Parenthood "went into the class to talk about contraceptives, to talk about STI prevention and sort of all of those things that are in the Grade 9 health curriculum," and added that "the resource was in a bag of other resources and it’s basically a big box we take to every event we go to, and so it ended up that one of the students grabbed a copy of that and took it home."

Duncan and Wotherspoon said the presentation offered to students did not include the cards. Duncan said the presentation "did focus on important issues around sexually transmitted infections and around contraception."

Planned Parenthood in Saskatchewan has begun a review of the materials that they bring into schools as part of lessons and teaching courses.

“Why was it there in the first place?” Duncan asked when presented Planned Parenthood’s explaination of how the cards were found, adding that the organization and school should have been more cautious with the material they brought into the classroom.

Duncan said the suspension is not permanent, and said the review would take place over summer break.

“I don’t think that this precludes them from, in the future, being a part of delivering resources and information into the classroom,” said Duncan.

Wotherspoon said the cards were not meant to be handed out to students, saying "The internet exists, meme culture uses some of these words. They hear their friends using some of these words to be shocking, but they don’t necessarily know what they mean."

The school division told CTV News in an email, "While the presentation itself was aligned with the Saskatchewan curriculum, the presenter brought a secondary resource which was not. This secondary resource, consisting of an A to Z sexual vocabulary, was inappropriate for students."

“It was not referred to in the actual presentation but was available at a side table after the presentation.”

The card deck titled "Using Sex: From A-Z Cards" states that "Sex from A-Z is a set of cards intended for Gay, Bi and Queer Young People. This is a fun and accessible resource that facilitates humorous and frank discussion among young people about sexuality and HIV and STI prevention.

Some of the cards include "Auto-fellatio" for the letter A, which is "the practice of sucking your own d*ck," "Money Shot" for the letter M, which is "the cum shot in porn movies, when the oiled-up cowboy ejaculates,"and "Urophlia" for the letter U, which states "Urophiles are people with urine fetishes."