{"id":178209,"date":"2018-04-08T10:53:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T14:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=178209"},"modified":"2018-12-28T21:33:25","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T03:33:25","slug":"planned-parenthood-population-control-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-population-control-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"The population control advocate behind Planned Parenthood’s transition to abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This article is part two in a series on the history of Planned Parenthood. Read part one here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s focus was eugenic sterilization and birth control, rather than decriminalizing abortion<\/a>. But it wasn’t a female eugenics crusader who rolled out the abortion agenda of Planned Parenthood<\/a> — that came from Dr. Alan F. Guttmacher, a physician and past vice-president of the American Eugenics Society who was already steeped in abortion prior to his election as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1962. Guttmacher worked with Mary S. Calderone, who joined Planned Parenthood’s staff in 1953 as its medical director, a post she held until 1964.\u00a0Years earlier, Guttmacher had vowed to work to decriminalize abortion, eventually persuading the PPFA board to commit the procedures.<\/p>\n

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PPFA president Alan F Guttmacher speaks about abortion, 1965<\/p><\/div>\n

Planned Parenthood was initially reluctant to perform abortions — that is, until Guttmacher came on the scene. Before making millions committing abortions, Planned Parenthood\u00a0admitted<\/a>\u00a0that abortion takes human life. A Planned Parenthood\u00a0pamphlet<\/a>\u00a0from 1952 reads,\u00a0\u201cAbortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.”<\/p>\n

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Another\u00a0pamphlet<\/a>\u00a0from Planned Parenthood Federation of America\u00a0also describes<\/a>\u00a0abortion as a procedure that \u201ckills life after it has begun\u201d and one which is \u201cdangerous\u201d to a woman\u2019s \u201clife and health.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the early 1960s, abortion enthusiasts like Larry Lader bemoaned Planned Parenthood’s lack of involvement with abortion, noting in his book,\u00a0“Abortion II,” that “Abortion never became a feminist plank in the United States among the suffragettes or depression radicals. It was ignored, even boycotted by Planned Parenthood women in those days.”<\/p>\n

Lader notes in his book,\u00a0<\/em>“Ideas Triumphant” how, other than the National Organization for Women (NOW), few groups were willing to support abortion: “In medicine, only the American Public Health Association (APHA) had taken a stand…. The huge network of Planned Parenthood Federation clinics remained on the sidelines except for its outspoken medical committee under Dr. Alan Guttmacher.”<\/p>\n

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Lawrence Lader, abortion crusader<\/p><\/div>\n

Lader expounds further in his book, “Abortion II,” writing, “Planned Parenthood, with hundreds of chapters and clinics throughout the country, had been a particular disappointment. Legalized abortion, I insisted from the start, was the logical measure for contraception and an essential form of birth control. Under the leadership of Dr. Alan Guttmacher, the medical committee of Planned Parenthood-World Population proposed the ‘abolition of existing statutes and criminal laws regarding abortion’ in 1968. After this plank was approved by the members in 1969, Planned Parenthood chapters soon started abortion referrals, and even clinics, as an ‘integral part of medical care.'”<\/p>\n

Guttmacher was an avid eugenicist, who joined others of his day in voicing a concern about rising population growth.\u00a0 In spite of national calls for coercion to slow down the rate of population growth, Guttmacher instead advocated the decriminalization of abortion as an effort that he felt would accomplish the same result. But, although Guttmacher had learned how to finesse the rhetoric, he did not discount the use of coercion altogether. In\u00a01966<\/a>, Guttmacher compared the world population with the threat of nuclear war, telling the Washington Post that governments may have to act officially to limit families. \u201cIt may be taken out of the voluntary category,” Guttmacher said.<\/p>\n

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Guttmacher abortion coercion possible<\/p><\/div>\n

Population concerns drove public policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Michael W. Perry’s\u00a0compilation of one of Sanger’s works with others of her period, “The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic<\/span><\/a>,”<\/span>\u00a0Perry writes<\/a> of Alan Guttmacher, “In 1962, Alan Guttmacher, former vice president of the American Eugenics Association, assumed the presidency of Planned Parenthood. Soon, a ‘population bomb’ hysteria… was driving public policy. In 1969, a medical news magazine revealed what was really going on when it quoted Guttmacher, warning that if ‘voluntary means’ did not achieve the desired goals, ‘Each country will have to decide its own form of coercion and determine when and how it should be employed. At present, the means available are compulsory sterilization and compulsory abortion.'”<\/p>\n

“That’s what [Margaret] Sanger intended to do with birth control…. So, why should it be surprising that Guttmacher felt the same?” Perry added.<\/p>\n

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This 1968 interview with Alan Guttmacher and a member of the clergy, which, according to\u00a0Ball State University,<\/a>\u00a0 originated\u00a0from\u00a0WLBC-TV<\/a>\u00a0and was\u00a0(possibly)\u00a0a\u00a0part\u00a0of a\u00a0segment\u00a0titled, “Week\u00a0in\u00a0Review,” demonstrates the concern the PPFA president had about the so-called “population crisis.”\u00a0Guttmacher began the interview by defining Planned Parenthood as a “movement which tries to make each child a wanted child born to responsible parents….”<\/p>\n

In the interview, Alan Guttmacher, addressed the issue of population growth:<\/p>\n

“Now, I think everyone is conscious of the fact that in some areas of the world there is explosive type of population increase, unsupportable, in that it is outdistancing food, it retards economic development… and, what we are attempting to do, of course, is to encourage countries to curtail the rate of growth.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n