Margaret Sanger Would Be Proud of What Planned Parenthood Has Become
Genevieve Wood /
Planned Parenthood is about to celebrate its 100th birthday.
It’s an odd, and frankly grotesque, commemoration for an organization that is responsible itself for ensuring over 7 million babies will never have the opportunity to celebrate even one birthday.
Planned Parenthood was founded on Oct. 16, 1916, by population control advocate Margaret Sanger. Though the organization’s mission statement today refers to “the fundamental right of each individual” to “manage his or her fertility,” Sanger was more honest about her goals in a 1934 article entitled “America Needs a Code for Babies.”
A few highlights from this eugenics masterpiece include:
- “The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies … and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit.”
- “No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit for parenthood.”
- “Feeble minded persons … and others found biologically unfit by authorities … should be sterilized or, in cases of doubt, should be so isolated as to prevent the perpetuation of their afflictions by breeding.”
- And in her book “Woman and the New Race,” Sanger wrote: “The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
My guess is Planned Parenthood isn’t using any of those warm and fuzzy quotes in its 100th anniversary marketing materials.
Here are some other facts about the organization you aren’t likely to see it publicly celebrating either:
- As the country’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood performs over 300,000 abortions per year. That is approximately one out of every three in the country.
- While it is responsible for just over 30 percent of abortions in the country, it performs less than 1 percent of Pap tests and less than 2 percent of clinical breast exams. And, for the record, Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms.
- Though the organization downplays the percentage of its business that is abortion related, the facts speak for themselves. As a Heritage Foundation report found, “Planned Parenthood affiliates perform about 20 abortions for every prenatal care visit and about 200 abortions for every adoption referral … ”
The organization has financially come a long way since 1916, taking in over $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Sadly, over $550 million of that came from taxpayers.
And despite the scandal in 2015 showing the organization was possibly in the business of selling parts of aborted babies to medical research labs, Planned Parenthood and its defenders have only grown more defiant in their demands for government dollars. (Planned Parenthood has denied illegal activity.)
Far from respecting “the fundamental right of each individual,” Planned Parenthood has violated the most basic human right of millions of Americans—the right to life. But on its 100th birthday, I’m sure Margaret Sanger is very proud of what Planned Parenthood has grown up to be.