A New York branch of the Planned Parenthood abortion chain publicly distanced itself from its founder, Margaret Sanger, on Tuesday amid accusations of “systemic racism” within the organization.
Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood in New York in 1916, was a well-known eugenicist who believed certain groups of human beings were “weeds,” “reckless breeders” and “morons” who should not have children.
According to the New York Times, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York plans to rename its Manhattan abortion facility, which has long bore Sanger’s name. It also asked city leaders to remove her name from a street sign nearby.
The abortion group’s leaders pointed to Sanger’s eugenics beliefs “rooted in racism, ableism and classism” as the reason for the change.
“The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” said Karen Seltzer, who chairs the board of the New York affiliate.
However, it appears to be nothing more than a publicity stunt by the New York branch after hundreds of its employees accused it of “systemic racism,” “abusive behavior and financial malfeasance.”
“Planned Parenthood can rename a building, but it can’t whitewash its eugenics roots,” U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska responded. “Planned Parenthood can try to forget its founder’s racist screeds, but it cannot escape the undeniable fact that it makes hundreds of millions of dollars each year by telling an ugly lie that certain lives are disposable and then disposing of them. Big abortion has always been, and will always be, in the business of violence and dehumanization.”
Since abortion became legal nation-wide in 1973, an estimated 20 million unborn black babies have been aborted in America, many of them at Planned Parenthood. And in New York City, where Sanger started the abortion chain, city health data indicates that more African American babies are aborted in the city than are born each year.
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Today, Planned Parenthood continues to fight against legislation that protects unborn babies from discrimination based on their sex, race or a disability.
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser urged Planned Parenthood to not only disavow its founder but also its current racist and eugenics practices.
“The next step for Planned Parenthood is recognizing that Margaret Sanger’s racist legacy continues today, as abortion continues to disproportionately impact minority communities, especially the black community,” Dannenfelser said.
She also urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former First Lady Hillary Clinton to disavow and return their Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger awards immediately.
The national Planned Parenthood said it agreed with the affiliate’s decision to remove Sanger’s name, but it did not mention if it will rename its award or anything else bearing her name.
One expert told the New York Times that Sanger’s views have been “misinterpreted,” and she was following the popular beliefs of the day. But Sanger was not just a follower. She helped to lead the eugenics movement, frequently promoting discrimination through her writing and speaking, including in a speech to the KKK in 1926.
In her book “Pivot of Civilization,” Sanger described certain groups of human beings as “human weeds,” “reckless breeders” and “spawning … human beings who never should have been born.”
She also wrote about getting rid of people with diseases and disabilities through sterilization and segregation, describing these “morons” as “a dead weight of human waste.” And in a 1939 letter to a friend, she wrote, “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”
Even the national Planned Parenthood has quietly condemned some of Sanger’s statements.
According to the newspaper:
The national organization said in [a 2016] fact sheet that it disagreed with Ms. Sanger’s decision to speak to members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1926 as she tried to spread her message about birth control.
It also condemned her support for policies to sterilize people who had disabilities that could not be treated; for banning immigrants with disabilities; and for “placing so-called illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, and dope fiends on farms and in open spaces as long as necessary for the strengthening and development of moral conduct.”
For years, pro-life leaders have been urging the Smithsonian to remove a statue of Sanger from a place of honor in the National Portrait Gallery.
Sanger’s discriminatory, anti-life views led to the killing of more than 62 million unborn babies in abortions in America. Today, Planned Parenthood leaders have no hesitation to say publicly that “EVERY reason to have an abortion is a valid reason,” including for sex-selection, race and disabilities like Down syndrome.
Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar abortion chain that kills more unborn babies in abortions than any other group in the U.S. Last year, it reported more than 345,000 abortions, a record number, while providing fewer actual health care services and seeing fewer patients.
