{"id":27016,"date":"2025-04-07T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=27016"},"modified":"2025-04-07T15:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T19:32:10","slug":"outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children","title":{"rendered":"Outrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Ken Wolter \/ Shutterstock.com | Inset: Planned Parenthood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Kentucky Science Center in Louisville and Planned Parenthood found themselves in hot water after sexually explicit coloring books were handed out to children during an event. The books were passed out on March 21st<\/sup> to children ages 8 to 13 during Health and Wellness days attended by some 400 public school students. The books included images of male and female genitalia, a sex \u201cad libs\u201d game, and a word search involving anatomical references. Several educators reported seeing the books being passed out.<\/p>\n

On March 26, the Center issued an apology for the material. \u201cWe sincerely apologize for the distribution of a Planned Parenthood coloring book at our recent Health & Wellness Days event. Planned Parenthood provided this material without our consent and it does not reflect our policies or the intended content for the event,\u201d the post said<\/a>. The Center also apologized for any \u201charm\u201d caused by the materials and also seemed to imply that Planned Parenthood would no longer be welcomed to the Center.<\/p>\n

According to the Center, the event started at 9 but Planned Parenthood did not show up until 10:30, making it difficult to check the materials. Taylor U\u2019Sellis, senior manager of marketing & communications for the Science Center, claimed an email had been sent to community partners with a request to inform the Center of what they would be bringing. One mother, Heather Terry, stated that her daughter, aged 9, came home with one of the books. She stated she didn\u2019t know where it came from originally, but was angry with \u201cthe material itself.\u201d \u201cI feel like that’s something I should have control over \u2014 when she sees and how she gets that information, not just given out freely because she walked up and someone says ‘Here do you want a coloring book?’\u201d she said<\/a>. U\u2019Sellis stated that as soon as they became aware of the material, they stopped its distribution \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood initially denied that it even passed out the books. \u201cWe want to be clear: the coloring book currently being circulated online was not distributed at the event. Claims suggesting otherwise are false and appear to be part of a coordinated attempt to stir outrage and manufacture controversy,\u201d stated Jennifer Allen, director of external affairs officer for the Planned Parenthood. \u201cWe remain committed to showing up for Kentucky youth and families with the information they need to lead safe and healthy lives.\u201d However, Planned Parenthood then acknowledged passing out the materials, claiming it was a mistake. \u201cWe have learned that a staff member inadvertently distributed an item that wouldn\u2019t typically be used in a setting like this event\u2026we apologize for this error and are reviewing our internal protocols,\u201d Planned Parenthood reportedly stated. The books were intended for Planned Parenthood\u2019s annual conference. \u201cWhile all material at the event was medically accurate, we apologize for this error and are reviewing our internal protocol. Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai\u2018i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky believes strongly in the importance of accurate and comprehensive reproductive health information for all,\u201d stated Allen.<\/p>\n

Conservatives on the internet were quick to doubt Planned Parenthood\u2019s intentions. \u201cWhy do these \u2018errors\u2019 keep happening? Why did Planned Parenthood lie?\u201d Libs of TikTok<\/a> asked after noting Planned Parenthood\u2019s denial and then apology. \u201cI wonder what the Science Center thought PP would talk about?\u201d asked<\/a> conservative Kentucky podcaster Andrew Cooperrider. \u201cAll they do is sex. Why were they there? Kentucky law requires schools to give a two week notice and the ability to opt out to parents before their children are instructed in sex ed. Having PP there was never going to end well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kentucky Science Center in Louisville and Planned Parenthood found themselves in hot water after sexually explicit coloring books were handed out to children during an event. The books were passed out on March 21st to children ages 8 to 13 during Health and Wellness days attended by some 400 public school students. The books…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":27019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOutrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Kentucky Science Center apologizes after Planned Parenthood distributed sexually explicit coloring books to children during event.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Outrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kentucky Science Center apologizes after Planned Parenthood distributed sexually explicit coloring books to children during event.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-07T19:32:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/04\/Planned-Parenthood-Coloring_credit-Ken-Wolter-Shutterstock-Inset-plannedparenthood.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Outrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children","description":"The Kentucky Science Center apologizes after Planned Parenthood distributed sexually explicit coloring books to children during event.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Outrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children","og_description":"The Kentucky Science Center apologizes after Planned Parenthood distributed sexually explicit coloring books to children during event.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-04-07T19:32:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/04\/Planned-Parenthood-Coloring_credit-Ken-Wolter-Shutterstock-Inset-plannedparenthood.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children","name":"Outrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/04\/Planned-Parenthood-Coloring_credit-Ken-Wolter-Shutterstock-Inset-plannedparenthood.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-07T19:32:10+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-07T19:32:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"The Kentucky Science Center apologizes after Planned Parenthood distributed sexually explicit coloring books to children during event.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/04\/Planned-Parenthood-Coloring_credit-Ken-Wolter-Shutterstock-Inset-plannedparenthood.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/04\/Planned-Parenthood-Coloring_credit-Ken-Wolter-Shutterstock-Inset-plannedparenthood.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Ken Wolter \/ Shutterstock.com | Inset: Planned Parenthood"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/04\/outrage-after-planned-parenthood-handed-out-sexually-explicit-coloring-books-to-children#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Outrage After Planned Parenthood Handed Out Sexually Explicit Coloring Books to Children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27022,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27016\/revisions\/27022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}