While Planned Parenthood is best known as an abortion provider, the organization itself tends to downplay that aspect of its services as a relatively small 3.4%. In addition to its other health services, Planned Parenthood also styles itself as an authoritative source for education about sex and pregnancy. The very first menu on the organization's website banner is "Learn" with submenus on various aspects of "sexual and reproductive health."
In addition to abortion, cancer, birth control, and other health topics, the website devotes an entire section to helping parents educate their children about "sex, puberty & relationships." While Planned Parenthood makes what it considers age-appropriate distinctions in the level of detail shared with children, honesty and openness is stressed ("open and factual discussions") from the youngest ages up through older teens. The materials shuns euphemisms and discourages calling body parts anything other than their accurate anatomical names.
When it comes to pregnancy, however, Planned Parenthood reverts back to a more traditional description that conflicts with the usual public characterization of an unborn child as just "part of a woman's body." In the section for ages 5-8 entitled "How do I talk with my elementary school aged child about pregnancy and reproduction?", there is no suggestion that what is inside the mother is anything other than a baby. Emphasis has been added to the excerpts here:
If a 5 year old asks, “Where do babies come from?” you can say, “A baby grows in a mother’s belly and comes out of her vagina.” That may be all it takes to satisfy their curiosity.
If they ask, “How does the baby get in the mother’s belly?” you can answer while still being age-appropriate — you don’t necessarily need to describe all the details of penis-in-vagina sex. For example, you can say “Most women have tiny eggs in a special part of their belly. Most men have very tiny seeds, called sperm. Sometimes, when two grownups have sex together, one grownup’s penis goes into the other’s vagina. They can make a baby if a seed and egg meet. Do you have any other questions about that?”
As children get older, you can fold in more detail: “Sometimes during sex between 2 grownups, sperm comes out of the penis, swims up through the vagina and into the uterus, looking for an egg. If the sperm and egg meet up, it can start to grow into a baby. The baby grows in the uterus for 9 months, and then comes out through the vagina or a small cut in the stomach.”By the time children reach age 9-13, advice to parents moves away dramatically from talk of "babies" and more towards discussions of sex, STD's, and pregnancy "options." And while Planned Parenthood now suggests telling pre-teens, "This is also a good opportunity to provide basic factual information — like that legal abortion is very safe and common," there is no mention of the fate of the "baby... in a mother's belly" and how parents should navigate through what is sure to be a difficult and thorny question from their child, "But what about the baby in the mom's belly?"
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As always, simple is key: you can say things like, “There are medicines people can take if they don’t want to have a baby right now,” or “There are things people can use that stop sperm from getting to an egg, so a baby can’t happen.” As they get older, you can be more specific about how birth control works to avoid pregnancy (and sometimes STDs) from sex.
