{"id":77368,"date":"2015-10-19T15:09:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T19:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=77368"},"modified":"2015-10-19T17:20:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T21:20:40","slug":"planned-parenthood-founder-margaret-sanger-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-founder-margaret-sanger-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Margaret Sanger racist? You be the judge about Planned Parenthood’s founder."},"content":{"rendered":"
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I like to think I\u2019m a pretty easy guy to get along with. I\u2019ve got some strong beliefs, but that doesn\u2019t stop me from being friends with people who think differently. Still, my tolerance does have its limits. For example, if you say you\u2019re attending a Klan rally<\/a> this weekend, or start talking about how \u201ccolored Negroes<\/a>\u201d are afflicted with \u201cignorance\u201d and \u201csuperstitions,\u201d I\u2019m going to feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not necessarily true of Planned Parenthood, though. In fact, they might even name an award after you.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood is America\u2019s largest abortion chain<\/a>, performing over three hundred thousand of them every year. It also gives out an award<\/a> for \u201cleadership, excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights movement.\u201d Described as Planned Parenthood\u2019s \u201chighest honor,\u201d it was named for the group\u2019s founder, Margaret Sanger.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite the fact that when it came to racial issues, some of Sanger’s\u00a0ideas were, (ahem) controversial<\/i>. Was she a racist? Let me share some facts about Sanger, and you be the judge.<\/p>\n

It’s said\u00a0you can know someone by the company they keep. Here\u2019s what some of Margaret Sanger\u2019s company looked like:<\/p>\n

\"KKK\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1865, unleashed a savage campaign of terror against African-Americans. The Klan\u2019s brutal history would have been known to Sanger; in 1915, screenings of a movie that glamorized it were followed by violence, including one incident in which a black teenager was murdered<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t stop Sanger\u00a0from attending a Klan event, something she recounted on page 366 of her autobiography<\/a>.\u00a0Reasoning that \u201cany aroused group was a good group,\u201d Sanger accepted a speaking invitation in 1926. Apparently they liked what she had to say as \u201ca dozen invitations to speak to similar groups\u201d followed.<\/p>\n

In addition to accusing African-Americans of being ignorant and superstitious, Sanger <\/a>told an Euthenics Institute that she was\u00a0\u201cglad to say that the United States Government has already taken certain steps to control the quality of our population through its drastic immigration laws,\u201d something she saw as a step towards \u201crace betterment.\u201d However, she complained that \u201cwhile we close our gates,\u201d there was \u201cno attempt to discourage or cut down the rapid multiplication of the unfit and undesirable at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanger\u2019s supporters contend<\/a> that none of these statements\u00a0are proof\u00a0of racism;\u00a0I suspect\u00a0anyone who said them today on a college campus would be quickly told otherwise. What can\u2019t be denied, however, is that the group Sanger founded is being defended by people who wear racism as a\u00a0badge of pride. That\u2019s true on the white supremacist site Erasing Us<\/a>, where pro-lifers are derided as “cuckservatives<\/a>“- traitors to their race.<\/p>\n

You can read how abortion isn\u2019t \u201c\u2018Black Genocide,\u2019 it’s proactive crime control.\u201d The comment section features statements from people like this:\"Racist<\/p>\n

And it turns out that Planned Parenthood isn\u2019t above taking\u00a0money from them. In 2008, Planned Parenthood officials in multiple states were willing to accept donations from callers who\u00a0said they were angry about affirmative action\u00a0and wanted to see\u00a0black children aborted<\/a>.<\/p>\n