life groups Why Life? and Rock for Life are lambasting the new Planned Parenthood Teenwire Web site for being a tragically hip guide for "everything from lubricants and orgasms to deviant sexual behavior and where to have your baby killed."
"Young people want the truth - and that's nowhere to be found on teenwire," said Rock for Life's director, Bryan Kemper. "Only perverts and pedophiles will benefit from this site."
Topics in Teenwire include news facing teens, crisis management, world perspectives on sexual issues, and a Q & A section. Nancy Sasaki, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood says that the "by teens - for teens" Web site was created to give factual, honest information to young people.
While an adult editor oversees content in the Web site, Andrew Daub of Why Life? said the site portrays parents as uncommunicative, old-fashioned and ignorant in comparison to the "young people" who write the page.
"That's not the goal of the Web site," said Sasaki. "We know that kids may already have that perspective and we want to convey that parents might be just as uncomfortable talking about sex as the teen is. But someone needs to take the first step to break that communication barrier down."
Kemper feels that because the Web site only has planning and abortion service referrals to Planned Parenthood clinics, the group is showing itself to be motivated by profit. The groups also criticized Planned Parenthood for joining with the ACLU to lead the fight against the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a bill designed to keep pornography off the Internet. "They had to keep their options open," said Daub.
Why Life? and Rock for Life are divisions of American Life League, the nation's largest pro-life educational organization. The Teenwire address is www.teenwire.com
