EDITORIAL

The Racist Roots of Planned Parenthood

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Since its founding, Planned Parenthood has been rooted in the racist philosophy of Margaret Sanger, whom progressives have hailed for years as a great social reformer and cultural icon. Her animosity toward people of color — and her desire to keep that animosity hidden — was revealed in a letter she wrote in 1939 to Clarence Gamble in which she said, “We don’t want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population …”
And for the most part, thanks largely to the work of revisionist historians and the secular media, the “word” did not get out to most Americans.
That situation changed for some a few weeks ago, when Planned Parenthood of New York announced that it would remove Margaret Sanger’s name from its clinic in Lower Manhattan because of her “harmful connections to the eugenics movement.”
It’s a positive and long-overdue change, for sure, but unfortunately it’s only an external one. Her name may now be off the building, but the tragic reality is that Margaret Sanger’s philosophy still permeates what happens within the building’s four walls. The organization still targets the African American population. Nearly 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of Black neighborhoods.
They may have dropped Sanger’s name, but they still target minority communities. That’s what needs to change.