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Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood) was.... well, it's complicated.
To begin with, I'll use quotes from NPR, so nobody can claim I'm only picking conservative sources - you can add your own cites and sources.
She was big on eugenics, that's a fact.
She was most definitely pro-abortion.
Was she racist?
Personally, I think NPR is being extraordinarily 'charitable' in describing her as "paternalistic", and playing down the racism.
But some of her statements oft quoted by anti-abortion people are out of context.
There's enough that she did for which she should be blamed without quoting her out of context, so I thought I'd start with what I think is the most abused misquote (or partial quote).
A quote I see often attributed to her is...
But note the comma, often left out.
From Time:
If you can't discuss this in a civil manner, I'll simply ask you to leave the thread. By posting in this thread, you agree to that condition, and your consent is thereby implied.
To begin with, I'll use quotes from NPR, so nobody can claim I'm only picking conservative sources - you can add your own cites and sources.
She was big on eugenics, that's a fact.
Eugenics was a discipline, championed by prominent scientists but now widely debunked, that promoted "good" breeding and aimed to prevent "poor" breeding. The idea was that the human race could be bettered through encouraging people with traits like intelligence, hard work, cleanliness (thought to be genetic) to reproduce. Eugenics was taken to its horrifying extreme during the Holocaust, through forced sterilizations and breeding experiments.
In the United States, eugenics intersected with the birth control movement in the 1920s, and Sanger reportedly spoke at eugenics conferences. She also talked about birth control being used to facilitate "the process of weeding out the unfit [and] of preventing the birth of defectives."
Historians seem to disagree on just how involved in the eugenics movement she was. Some contend her involvement was for political reasons — to win support for birth control.
In the United States, eugenics intersected with the birth control movement in the 1920s, and Sanger reportedly spoke at eugenics conferences. She also talked about birth control being used to facilitate "the process of weeding out the unfit [and] of preventing the birth of defectives."
Historians seem to disagree on just how involved in the eugenics movement she was. Some contend her involvement was for political reasons — to win support for birth control.
She was most definitely pro-abortion.
Was she racist?
In 1946, Sanger wrote about the importance of giving "Negro" parents a choice in how many children they would have.
"The Negro race has reached a place in its history when every possible effort should be made to have every Negro child count as a valuable contribution to the future of America," she wrote. "Negro parents, like all parents, must create the next generation from strength, not from weakness; from health, not from despair."
Her attitude toward African-Americans can certainly be viewed as paternalistic, but there is no evidence she subscribed to the more racist ideas of the time or that she coerced black women into using birth control. In fact, for her time, as the Washington Post noted, "she would likely be considered to have advanced views on race relations."
"The Negro race has reached a place in its history when every possible effort should be made to have every Negro child count as a valuable contribution to the future of America," she wrote. "Negro parents, like all parents, must create the next generation from strength, not from weakness; from health, not from despair."
Her attitude toward African-Americans can certainly be viewed as paternalistic, but there is no evidence she subscribed to the more racist ideas of the time or that she coerced black women into using birth control. In fact, for her time, as the Washington Post noted, "she would likely be considered to have advanced views on race relations."
Personally, I think NPR is being extraordinarily 'charitable' in describing her as "paternalistic", and playing down the racism.
But some of her statements oft quoted by anti-abortion people are out of context.
There's enough that she did for which she should be blamed without quoting her out of context, so I thought I'd start with what I think is the most abused misquote (or partial quote).
A quote I see often attributed to her is...
“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,”
But note the comma, often left out.
From Time:
Historians and scholars who’ve examined Sanger’s correspondence, as Salon reported in 2011, challenge those who call the activist racist.
Much of the controversy stems from a 1939 letter in which Sanger outlined her plan to reach out to black leaders — specifically ministers — to help dispel community suspicions about the family planning clinics she was opening in the South.
“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,” she wrote. It was, as the Washington Post called it, an “inartfully written” sentence, but one that, in context, describes the sort of preposterous allegations she feared — not her actual mission. The irony is that it has been used to propagate those very allegations. Cruz’s letter to the director of the National Portrait Gallery, for example, quotes only the first half of the sentence.
Much of the controversy stems from a 1939 letter in which Sanger outlined her plan to reach out to black leaders — specifically ministers — to help dispel community suspicions about the family planning clinics she was opening in the South.
“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,” she wrote. It was, as the Washington Post called it, an “inartfully written” sentence, but one that, in context, describes the sort of preposterous allegations she feared — not her actual mission. The irony is that it has been used to propagate those very allegations. Cruz’s letter to the director of the National Portrait Gallery, for example, quotes only the first half of the sentence.
If you can't discuss this in a civil manner, I'll simply ask you to leave the thread. By posting in this thread, you agree to that condition, and your consent is thereby implied.
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