fbpx

Why PP Series: #6: Sanger and PP racism–Past and Present

Margaret Sanger in 1957In this final segment of my “Why PP Series,” I’d like to address Planned Parenthood’s racist roots and its current racist business practices. Margaret Sanger was one of the earliest advocates for access to birth control, abortion, and involuntary sterilization in the United States. She explained that these “rights” were necessary to create “a race of thoroughbreds.” She specifically placed her clinics in minority neighborhoods and, according to BlackGenocide.org she “created the Negro Project [which was] designed to sterilize unknowing black women and others she deemed as undesirables of society” because, Sanger said, “colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated.” Her support of birth control was meant to decrease the fertility of the unfit; she wrote in her Birth Control Review that “the campaign for Birth Control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical in ideal with the final alms of Eugenics.” Sanger strongly supported racial quotas for immigration and believed this should be extended to racial quotas on births:

The question of race betterment is one of immediate concern, and I am glad to say that the United States Government has already taken certain steps to control the quality of our population through drastic immigration laws. There is a quota restriction by which only so many people from each country are allowed to enter our shores each month. … But while we close our gates to the so-called “undesirables” from other countries, we make no attempt to discourage or cut down the rapid multiplication of the unfit and undesirable at home. In fact, through our archaic and inhuman laws against Birth Control information, the breeding of defectives and insane becomes a necessity. These types are being multiplied with break-neck rapidity and increasing far out of proportion to the normal and intelligent classes. … The American public is taxed, heavily taxed, to maintain an increasing race of morons, which threatens the very foundations of our civilization. (Sanger, “The Function of Sterilization,” The Birth Control Review, October 1926, p. 299)

Sanger believed that poverty could be eliminated by making sure that the poor and uneducated did not reproduce. She viewed efforts at bringing these people out of their poverty to be a waste of time. The push to eliminate minorities still continues in the “pro-choice” movement today. The rate at which minority women “choose” abortion is revealing. According to a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, half of all pregnancies among black women end in abortion, while only 10.5% of white women’s pregnancies end in abortion. And while blacks make up slightly less than 13% of the population, black women account for 37% of all abortions. This is not a coincidence. Minorities are targeted specifically by Planned Parenthood. As BlackGenocide.org notes, “78% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minorities communities.” Since Planned Parenthood provides roughly 1 in every four or five abortions, this amounts to a targeted, massive assault on these communities. Planned Parenthood’s research arm, the Guttmacher Institute, recently released a study designed to disprove their racial agenda. They claim that the higher abortion rate of minorities is simply due to their higher rate of unintended pregnancies. But recent undercover work has proved that Planned Parenthood isn’t just aborting black babies because their mothers are poor and their pregnancies are “unintended.” A recent expose found that Planned Parenthood employees were willing (and even “excited”) to accept donations specifically earmarked to abort black babies. For Further Information: On Margaret Sanger: A complete library of all of Sanger’s writings is available from Life Dynamics. The copies of her Birth Control Review are particularly interesting. Scanned versions of the original publications are posted. I encourage anyone who believes Sanger’s quotes are out of context to read the whole document (wow are they creepy!). The Margaret Sanger Project also has links to a variety of her writings. Matt Yonke, of the PLAL staff, made some excellent points in his blog post on September 19, 2008. He notes that, despite what people like to say, the quotes used to prove that Sanger was a racist are indeed accurate. BlackGenocide.org has an in-depth section on the racist foundations of Planned Parenthood as well as a lot of other information specific to abortion and black Americans. On Planned Parenthood’s Continuing Racism: Students for Life of America have a very comprehensive study available on their webpage. The first section summarizes Margaret Sanger’s racist agenda, while the second section looks at PP’s willingness to accept racist donations. A group of black pastors recently protested Planned Parenthood’s racist behavior. Several news stories are available on this protest (See the Fox News article and the Human Events article.)

Share Tweet Email