I'm the Head of Planned Parenthood. We're Done Making Excuses for Our Founder.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/opinion/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger.html

By Alexis McGill Johnson

Ms. McGill Johnson is the president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

We need to talk about Margaret Sanger.

For the 11 years that I’ve been involved with Planned Parenthood, founded by Sanger, her legacy on race has been debated. Sanger, a nurse, opened the nation’s first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1916, and dedicated her life to promoting birth control to improve women’s lives. But was she, or was she not, racist?

It’s a question that we’ve tried to avoid, but we no longer can. We must reckon with it.

Up until now, Planned Parenthood has failed to own the impact of our founder’s actions. We have defended Sanger as a protector of bodily autonomy and self-determination, while excusing her association with white supremacist groups and eugenics as an unfortunate “product of her time.” Until recently, we have hidden behind the assertion that her beliefs were the norm for people of her class and era, always being sure to name her work alongside that of W.E.B. Dubois and other Black freedom fighters. But the facts are complicated.

If you're interested in reproductive justice at all, I encourage you to read the entire article, as this discussion is about much, much more than Sanger.

[niyad]

1. Thank you for posting this most important article. Would you consider cross- posting it in

wWomen's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. done

[niyad]

6. Thank you. I appreciate this very much.

[Maeve]

2. Makes me feel that much better about the check I just wrote for them this morning

Thanks for the read

[DBoon]

4. Sierra Club has similar issues with founder John Muir

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. We live in a white supremacy, so most of our institutions are built on white supremacist frameworks.

It takes a lot of work to dismantle them and rebuild them as something that works for everyone.

[jimfields33]

9. I'm glad they didn't name the organization after her

I don’t think any schools or building are named after her that I know of. It might be possible to change every name to a current person.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. They had named their HQ and some awards after her, but have removed her name from them.

The article makes a good point: Merely erasing her in such a way does no good unless we grapple with the legacy.

[gratuitous]

8. Okay, Sanger was a racist in a racist time

I'm perfectly willing to have the warts-and-all remembrance of Sanger and to recognize the terrific work Planned Parenthood does day in, day out, year after year, for women all over the country, no matter their economic status or family history. The institution survived its founder and continues to improve its mission.

Got an issue with Sanger? She's in Green-Wood Cemetery in New York. Those of us concerned with women's health and their right to control their own bodies and reproduction will keep working through Planned Parenthood.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Now is also a racist time, so the anti-racist work must be done.

Planned Parenthood also serves people who aren't women.

[Buzz cook]

12. The Sanger quote was taken out of context. And the conservatives ran with it.

Of course the first question to ask is, would anti abortion activists lie? I don't think that needs an answer.

Guess what, some of the Sanger quotes aren't even by Sanger.

Some quotes attributed to Sanger can't be traced to anyone.

Here's a Sanger quote. https://www.thoughtco.com/margaret-sanger-quotes-3530134

White Man Is the Problem

What hangs over the South is that the Negro has been in servitude. The white southerner is slow to forget this. His attitude is the archaic in this age. Supremacist thinking belongs in the museum.

The big answer, as I see it, is the education of the white man. The white man is the problem. It is the same as with the Nazis. We must change the white attitudes. That is where it lies.

Here's a quote many righties hang their hat on.
https://www.factcheck.org/2011/11/cains-false-attack-on-planned-parenthood/

Sanger, 1939: The minister’s work is also important and he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.

The italicized part is usually omitted.

In short when the right wing cries racism, watch your step because there's bullshit on the ground.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. Please read the article.