The Racist Views of Planned Parenthood’s Founder
Jeanne Mancini /
In the wake of the recent and ongoing Planned Parenthood scandal regarding the harvesting and sale of baby hearts, livers, lungs, and other organs, late last week a group of black pastors requested that a bust of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, be removed from a temporary Smithsonian exhibit named, ironically, “Struggle for Justice.”
The pastors are deeply offended at Sanger’s inclusion in the program because of her direct ties to eugenics and overall disdain for African-Americans.
Until now, many Americans have trustingly assumed that Planned Parenthood is a benevolent health care provider, but after watching the horrific videos, complete with senior employees’ casual disrespect for human life and dignity, the public is beginning to ask more probing questions about Planned Parenthood’s founding, mission, and ongoing work.
In doing so, they will likely learn very disturbing information about Sanger’s view of black Americans and how that influenced the founding of Planned Parenthood of America, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
In 1921, Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, which in 1942 underwent a name change to become Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Many of the group’s founding directors were actively involved in the “eugenics” movement, which held that certain classes or colors of people were “lesser” and “unfit” for humanity and shockingly should be eliminated. Included in these targeted “unfit” groups were black Americans (another group included was people with disabilities).
In addition to eugenics involvement, one founding director, Dr. Lothrup Stoddard, wrote a book, “Rising Tide of Color against White Supremacy.”
Perhaps the hardest fact to take in is that under Margaret Sanger’s leadership, the organization created a program called the “Negro Project,” which involved strategically seeking to decrease the black population by convincing black community leaders to introduce birth control to their networks.
About the project, Margaret Sanger was once quoted as saying, “We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
She also spoke at Ku Klux Klan meetings.
Fast-forwarding to 2015, sadly, today, black Americans are aborted at a highly disproportionate rate.
Making up only 13 percent of the population, this group makes up a staggering 36 percent of the nation’s abortions.
In certain areas such as New York City, a black baby is more likely to be aborted than carried to term.
In the words of the pastors:
Perhaps the gallery is unaware that Ms. Sanger supported black eugenics, a racist attitude toward black and other minority babies; an elitist attitude toward those she regarded as ‘the feeble minded;’ speaking at rallies of Ku Klux Klan women….Also the notorious ‘Negro Project’ which sought to limit, if not eliminate, black births, was her brainchild. Despite these well documented facts of history, her bust sits proudly in your gallery as a hero of justice.
As the undercover videos continue to be made public one after the other, it is likely that Americans will continue to discover many unseemly truths about Planned Parenthood’s origins.