{"id":327106,"date":"2025-03-05T12:43:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=327106"},"modified":"2025-03-13T18:53:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T23:53:59","slug":"reject-planned-parenthood-eugenic-population-agenda-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/reject-planned-parenthood-eugenic-population-agenda-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"REJECT Planned Parenthood: The corporation’s eugenic, population control agenda lives on"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the first installment of Live Action News’ REJECT Planned Parenthood<\/a> series, we offer a glimpse into the organization’s founding under the leadership of Margaret Sanger, a strong proponent of eugenics<\/a>, along with information about those who eventually led Planned Parenthood to become the nation’s largest provider of abortions, receiving billions of dollars from United States taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood founded by eugenicist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, which was heavily focused on eugenics<\/a> \u2014 the idea of breeding<\/a> certain traits into (or out of) the population \u2014 in 1916<\/a>. The organizations Sanger founded \u2014 such as the American Birth Control League (ABCL), the Birth Control Federation of America (BCFA) and later, Planned Parenthood \u2014 were closely involved with eugenics proponents<\/a> and are just one of many reasons why groups and individuals have called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

Under the philosophy of eugenics, minorities and the poor<\/a>, as well as others deemed to be \u201cfeebleminded or unfit\u201d were sometimes sterilized by the government. And at times, state-based sterilization boards used Planned Parenthood to commit these surgeries without the knowledge or consent of the victims. In 1921, Sanger\u00a0proclaimed<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical in ideal with the final aim of eugenics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The philosophy of eugenics not only fed Sanger’s work within the Planned Parenthood movement, but her lesser known advocacy of euthanasia<\/a> as well. As shown in the image below, Sanger was a member of the Euthanasia Society of America’s American Advisory Council.<\/p>\n

\"Margaret

Margaret Sanger founder of Planned Parenthood focused on eugenics called racist<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1926, as Live Action News has previously\u00a0detailed<\/a>, Margaret Sanger met with the women\u2019s branch of the Ku Klux Klan at the group’s request, entertaining additional invitations, according to her own report of the meeting. The event took place in Silver Lake, New Jersey, and Sanger described<\/a>\u00a0in it in her autobiography<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I accepted an invitation to talk to the women\u2019s branch of the Ku Klux Klan\u2026. I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses\u2026. I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak\u2026. In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.<\/em> (Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography, P.366)<\/p>\n

Sanger called that event\u00a0\u201cone of the weirdest experiences I had in lecturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sanger writes about meeting with the Klan in autobiography<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, in 1934, Sanger suggested<\/a> that couples apply for a governmental \u201clicense<\/a>\u201d to have children. Just five years later, in 1939, Sanger created her \u201cNegro Project,\u201d as described in a letter<\/a> she penned to Clarence Gamble regarding her desire to use Black ministers in furthering her organization\u2019s agenda. \u201cWe do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,\u201d she said, and if it did, these ministers could \u201cstraighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Excerpt: Margaret Sanger Letter to Clarence Gamble, Negro Project<\/p><\/div>\n

A few years later, on March 6, 1942, the media announced that the BCFA had changed its name to Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Fast forward several decades, and Sanger has now been described<\/a> by Planned Parenthood\u2019s own staff as a racist \u201cwhite supremacist.\u201d After more than a century of accepting Sanger\u2019s racist, eugenicist ideologies and lauding her as a hero, Planned Parenthood finally succumbed to societal pressure into canceling<\/a> her.<\/p>\n

Margaret Sanger’s controversial history as an enthusiastic proponent of eugenics and as a member of the American Eugenics Society \u2014 history once lauded by Planned Parenthood \u2014 are now hallmarks of shame. The corporation is only very recently attempting to erase<\/a> or whitewash<\/a> this history after decades of celebrating<\/a> abortion-friendly journalists and politicians with its Margaret Sanger Award (or “Maggie Award”).<\/p>\n

Eugenicist president leads Planned Parenthood to commit abortion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood’s obsession with abortion is the number one reason many have called to defund Planned Parenthood today. But when Sanger started the organization, she focused on birth control as a means of controlling the population. As Live Action News previously noted<\/a>, “Sanger was not necessarily opposed to abortion, but as it had not yet been legalized, her focus was eugenic sterilization and birth control. In her book\u00a0Woman and the New Race<\/a>, published in 1920, Sanger suggest[ed] that birth control is a better choice than abortion.”<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood’s push to begin referring<\/a> for and eventually committing abortions<\/a>\u00a0was initiated by the organization’s president<\/a>, Alan F. Guttmacher<\/a>, another eugenicist leader,<\/a> who took that office in 1962.<\/p>\n

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Margaret Sanger and Alan F Guttmacher of Planned Parenthood advocate coercive sterilization<\/p><\/div>\n

During this time<\/a>, many within the Black community<\/a> were concerned about the use of abortion and birth control to eugenically limit the poor, disabled, or Black segment of society. After dialoguing internally about the unease of the Black community, the suggestion was made to add Black members to Planned Parenthood\u2019s board; this took place at the same time that Planned Parenthood was calling<\/a>\u00a0for the decriminalization of abortion.<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0New York Times article<\/a> from November 14, 1968, the first time that Planned Parenthood went on record calling for abortion, they also elected their very first Black board chairman to roll out the new agenda \u2014 Dr. Jerome H. Holland. According to media reports, Holland \u201cpledged his support for the group\u2019s program saying that those who call birth control a form of genocide are \u2018not aware of the real meaning of family planning and its uses.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The same year, Frederick Osborn<\/a>, a founding Eugenics Society officer connected to Planned Parenthood,\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cEugenic goals are most likely to be attained under a name other than eugenics.\u201d Osborn\u00a0signed<\/a>\u00a0Margaret Sanger\u2019s \u201cCitizens Committee for Planned Parenthood,\u201d\u00a0published<\/a> in her review in April of 1938. Some speculate that Planned Parenthood\u2019s infamous slogan, \u201cEvery Child a Wanted Child,\u201d may have originated<\/a>\u00a0with Osborn.<\/p>\n

Abortion was not introduced to Planned Parenthood by Margaret Sanger, but by the organization\u2019s then-president<\/a>, Dr Alan F. Guttmacher<\/a>, a former vice president of the American Eugenics Society<\/a>. In a 1970 interview, Guttmacher called for decriminalized abortion, and at a 1970 Cornell Symposium<\/a>, Guttmacher suggested \u201cunlimited abortion\u201d as the best means of reducing \u201cpopulation growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in 1978, the organization elected<\/a> Faye Wattleton as Planned Parenthood’s very first Black female as president. Under Wattleton\u2019s leadership, Planned Parenthood\u2019s budget grew<\/a> from $90 million (1978) to $384 million (1990). For her service and dedication to the eugenics-minded organization, Wattleton received Planned Parenthood\u2019s Margaret Sanger Award in 1992.<\/p>\n