If there’s one thing pro-life advocates don’t seem to get, it’s Planned Parenthood.

Across the country, a persistent popular and legislative battle rages against this medical network because of the abortions performed in its clinics. Despite the legality of abortion in all fifty states under the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, states with pro-life majorities continue to allocate less and less funding toward Planned Parenthood and its affiliated organizations as a means of restricting access to abortion, and thus reducing the likelihood that a procedure they deem morally wrong will occur within their borders.

Whether or not the manipulation of state funds to restrict an otherwise federally guaranteed right represents an appropriate use of the American legal system is up for debate, but risking the reproductive health of Americans by the same means is undeniably an affront against social stability and justice. Unfortunately, where Planned Parenthood is concerned, the two actions have become one and the same.

In Texas, for example, Gov. Rick Perry recently introduced his “Initiatives to Protect Life,” a statewide defunding of clinics associated with abortion providers and advocates—including every single Planned Parenthood in the state. According to Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report, however, abortion procedures accounted for just three percent of the total services provided nationwide in 2011. In states like Texas, where pro-choice influence remains relatively low, the percentage is likely to be even smaller. The other 97 plus percent, meanwhile, constitutes a variety of reproductive health services including cancer screenings, contraception, gynecological exams, vaccinations, adoption referrals and—the network’s largest service—testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Not only is this approach completely impractical for pro-life advocates—it’s a little like shutting down an entire airport because one plane is late—it also represents a greater systemic problem in the way America views sex.

When Gov. Perry announced his initiatives in Houston in December, he was careful to note that “protecting the rights of abortion providers and protecting women’s health is not the same thing.”

He’s right: as Planned Parenthood statistics show, abortion is only one tiny facet of the spectrum of women’s health issues and for those who oppose the procedure, not a factor at all. And yet, the very initiatives Perry announced fundamentally ignore this crucial reality. By defunding abortion providers in Texas, Perry is also defunding the clinics who provide the bulk of reproductive care for low-income women in Texas (including women who, in fact, want to give birth)—as well as many men, in the case of the network’s STI services.

It seems counterproductive. Presumably, regular consultations with a medical professional regarding reproductive health—as well as access to contraceptive products and appropriate instruction on how to use them—would greatly reduce the likelihood of a woman having an unplanned pregnancy, thus reducing the likelihood of abortion. Yet, restricting access to reproductive health facilities remains the number one way states such as Texas attempt to limit the abortions that occur within their borders.

The only way to make sense out of this approach to abortion legislation is to place it in the context of a larger hands-off approach to all things sex-related. Rather than attack abortion on its own, it seems easier to avoid acknowledging the reproductive system altogether, and to ignore all the vital reproductive services provided by clinics such as Planned Parenthood that have nothing to do with abortion.

The dilemma seems to correlate regionally with inadequate sexual education programs in public schools, in which students are taught primarily that extramarital sex is an act of shame, rather than taught how to healthily engage in sexual intercourse. A 2009 report released by the Texas Freedom Network, for example, found that 94 percent of Texas students received abstinence-only sex education, and that over 96 percent of school districts in the state failed to teach “any medically accurate information on responsible pregnancy and disease prevention.”

In a society in which many teenagers are going to choose to have sex despite being told not to—particularly those who don’t identify with the religious or moral code from which such prohibitions often originate—such drastic ignorance of the reproductive system often translates directly into increased risk of teenage pregnancy and/or the contraction of STIs. Studies have suggested that a significant number of unplanned teenage pregnancies result from a belief by the mother that she could not get pregnant at the time of intercourse, demonstrating a fundamental lack of understanding of the female reproductive system amongst young men and women that begs to be corrected.

The blame, however, does not rest with Texas alone. Throughout the country, young people are engaging in sexual activity without the appropriate protection or forethought, largely because they have not been educated on what these steps should entail.

Last month, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education in Washington, D.C. released the results of the nation’s first-ever standardized health education test. High school students in the district correctly answered an average of only three out of four questions related to human sexuality and reproduction, and only 40 percent of the questions asking where they could access more health resources if they needed them.

The restrictions, in some states, on clinics like Planned Parenthood only compound the education gap. As major sources of reproductive care for teens, these clinics have the potential to pick up the slack when public education just isn’t cutting it. Provided, of course, that they have the funding to do so and that the state legislature isn’t creating a culture of shame around those who seek out these resources for help.

Together, these two phenomena—inadequate education and government restriction of reproductive care—reinforce the silence surrounding youth sexuality in America. They align reproductive health with promiscuity and the abortion debate, rather than providing youth the tools they need to make smart decisions about sex. They create an unwitting war on responsible sexual behavior, a war in which society is the greatest casualty.

Reach Deputy Opinion Editor Francesca Bessey here.