Finally Planned Parenthood Comes Clean. Or Did They?

by Dr. Jerry Bergman

A recent headline on Breitbart News announced in big, bold type: “Planned Parenthood Acknowledges Its ‘Racist Roots’ and Eugenics of Founder Margaret Sanger.” My first response was, “Finally!” [i]

Actually, the article was mostly about a Planned Parenthood student group at the University of Florida that hosted an event to “discuss” the racist roots of the organization as well as the eugenics of founder Margaret Sanger. This was a little bit of progress, though.

As I read further, I found that the event organizers wanted to “open a conversation about the decolonization of sexual health and how resources are disproportionally inaccessible to folks based on demographics.” What? By this they meant middle class whites have much greater access to abortion than Blacks and Hispanics! (Let that thought sink in.)

In this book, Dr Bergman documents the racism, eugenics and sexual perversions of Margaret Sanger.

In fact, as I document in my new book How Darwinism Corrodes Morality: Darwinism, Immorality, Abortion and the Sexual Revolution (2017. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada: Joshua Press) the “problem is not the inaccessibility of abortion services to minority communities, but rather its opposite: the targeting of minority communities—which seems to fit with the original racist aims of the organization.”[1]

The article adds, correctly, that Planned Parenthood targets black and other minority communities and, as a result, as many as 80% of their surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of most large African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods. The data the article notes is, in the U.S., 365 black babies are aborted for every 1,000 that are born, which translated into blacks are aborted at a rate 3.6 times higher than the rate of whites.

This is in harmony with Sanger’s stated goal of her movement, which was to produce a superior race. We must change biology to cause the “evolution of humanity itself.”[2] To achieve this eugenic goal, she advocated euthanasia, segregation of inferior races in work camps, sterilization, and abortion of what she and most ecumenists regarded as “inferior” children.[3] 

Sanger believed that her movement was “working in accord with the universal law of evolution” to eliminate the less fit.

Sanger believed that her movement was “working in accord with the universal law of evolution” to eliminate the less fit and to help the more fit to thrive.[4] Her magazine even argued for “state-sponsored sterilization programs,” forcibly sterilizing the “less capable” of our society[5] In the end, over 63,000 putative inferior Americans, mostly girls, were sterilized to achieve eugenic goals.[6]  (See Dr Bergman’s previous article, “Darwinian eugenics hit Latinos hard,” April 4).

Sanger’s Darwinian views were also expressed in her writing. For example, she maintained that the brains of Australian Aborigines were evolutionarily only one step above chimpanzees, and just under those of blacks, Jews, and Italians.[7]  Sanger turned her attention to Negroes early in her career by opening a new abortion clinic in Harlem in 1930. As her organization grew, Sanger organized more clinics in other, mostly black, communities. In alliance with “eugenicists, and through initiatives such as the Negro Project… [they] exploited black stereotypes in order to reduce the fertility of African Americans”[8] and other “dysgenic races” besides Blacks, such as Hispanics.

The Margaret Sanger Story

Although she “used to sneak off to church on Sundays,” as an adult she changed into a religious skeptic and a radical like her father,[9] becoming actively involved in Marxist groups, secular humanist societies and Darwinian eugenics groups. Her sexual promiscuity resulted in behavior that neither of her first two husbands could cope with.

Margaret Sanger once gave the following moral advice to her sixteen-year-old granddaughter: “Kissing, petting and even intercourse are alright as long as they are sincere. … As for intercourse, I’d say three times a day was about right.”[10]  Of course, with free, safe abortions in the clinics, she made pregnancy a lesser concern than it had been in the past. Now that over 60 million abortions have been performed since it was legalized by the U.S. Supreme court, abortion has become as American as apple pie, providing a steady income stream for Planned Parenthood’s ghastly “business.” (See our previous entries, “Secularists Treat Abortion Like a Religious Ritual” 4 Feb 2018, and “Big Science Leftist Bias Is on Autopilot” 24 March 2018.)

Planned Parenthood would like most Americans to forget this past and focus on “Women’s Health” – a dishonest euphemism for abortion.

[1] Thomas D. Williams, “Planned Parenthood Acknowledges Its ‘Racist Roots’ and Eugenics of Founder Margaret Sanger,” Breitbart News, 1 March 2018.

[2] Sanger, 1922, p. 31.

[3] Flynn, 2004, p. 150.

[4] Douglas, Emily Taft.  1975.  Margaret Sanger: Pioneer of the Future.  Garret Park, MD: Garrett Park Press, p. 130.

[5] Roche, Claire M. 2003. “Reproducing the Working Class: Tillie Olsen, Margaret Sanger, and American Eugenics.” pp. 259-275 in Cuddy, Lois A. and Claire M. Roche (editors), p. 264.

[6] Messall, Rebecca R.  2010. Margaret Sanger and the Eugenics Movement. The Human Life Review. 36(2) Spring, p. 2

[7] Flynn, Daniel J.  2004.  Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas.  New York: Crown Forum. See also Jerry Bergman. Darwinism used to Justify Abortion. The Human Life Review. 41(2):53-65. Spring 2015.

[8] Washington, Harriet A.  2006.  Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.  New York: Doubleday, p. 196.

[9] Gray, Madeline.  1979.  Margaret Sanger: A Biography of the Champion of Birth Control.  New York: Richard Marek Publishers, p. 16.

[10] Gray, 1979, pp. 227-228.

Dr Jerry Bergman, professor, author and speaker, is a frequent contributor to Creation-Evolution Headlines. He is currently a staff scientist at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). See his Author Profile for his previous articles and more information.

Ed. note— Jerry Bergman’s book mentioned above is must reading for anyone concerned about the moral decline of American culture. His chapter on Margaret Sanger, heavily referenced with Sanger’s own words, is shocking and disgusting. Yet she is just one of numerous influential persons who used Darwinian ideas to perpetrate horrors of racism, sexism, sexual perversion, sadism, and even mass murder and genocide. Planned Parenthood’s roots in Margaret Sanger’s ideas of eugenic racism need to be better known and taught, because the organization is still racist. Spread this article!

Action item: This week, the returning Congress will be discussing items to possibly cut from the bloated omnibus budget bill passed last month. Many pro-lifers were outraged that Republicans, who had promised to de-fund Planned Parenthood, failed to do so when they had the golden opportunity. As a result, American taxpayers are still forced to give nearly half a billion (billion with a B) dollars each year to this perverted, racist, murderous organization! Family Research Council (FRC) is urging citizens to contact their representatives to strip out as much of the excessive spending as possible that was included in the 2,200-page bill. The highest priority for the chopping block should be funding for Planned Parenthood. Hear Washington Watch, April 5 for information on what you can do.

In addition, pro-lifers should support the Student Pro-Life Walkout this Wednesday, April 11 (see Fox News). Will this student-led action get the same accommodation and media attention the anti-gun walkout did? Hear more about this activity and what you can do about it on Washington Watch, April 6.

Ultimately, pro-lifers need to get to the root of the problem. Margaret Sanger illustrates the horrific damage that results from acceptance of Darwinian ideas. The fruit of Darwinism is evil because the root is evil. Jesus said, “the diseased tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17). Hosea, who, like Americans, lived in a time of cultural corrosion because of the people’s trust in lies, said, “But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception” (Hosea 10:13). Our articles inform citizens so that they can be empowered and motivated to follow Hosea’s counsel: “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12).