The myth of Planned Parenthood and black genocide
This summer I had the pleasure of canvassing for Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia. During that time, I was often told by my fellow black folk that I was participating in “black genocide” by representing and advocating for Planned Parenthood.
At first, I was thoroughly confused about how what they were saying to me would even make sense. And then I remembered that Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was notoriously accused of being a racist and a eugenicist who promoted the extinction of the black race by putting abortion clinics in black neighborhoods.
In fact, the office of Republican Senator Ted Cruz issued a press release on the matter after Cruz and 24 House Republicans campaigned to have Sanger’s bust taken out of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The press release stated that Sanger didn’t belong in the museum for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that part of her “inhumane life’s work” actually “advocated for the extermination of African-Americans.”
This accusation stems from a letter she wrote in 1939 stating, “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.” Sanger knew that such a narrative about her work could be spread and this was her attempt to nip it in the bud.
Sanger had worked closely with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to get contraception and birth control to black people because she believed they should also have the right to decide how many children they have. She was even endorsed by Martin Luther King Jr.
As for the claims that she is a eugenicist, it has been stated by Gloria Steinem and others that her fervor to get contraception and birth control to the masses led her to aligning with eugenicist rhetoric even though that may not have been what was in her heart. Nonetheless, eugenics is a nasty thing that led to the torture of many people at the hands of wicked doctors and there is no real excuse for that.
Was Sanger trying to exterminate the black race? No, she was not. She was just all about women having a choice. Accord- ing to a story from TIME, “Sanger’s stated mission was to empower women to make their own reproductive choices. She did focus her efforts on minority communities, because that was where, due to poverty and limited access to health care, women were especially vulnerable to the effects of unplanned pregnancy.”
This narrative of Sanger wanting to “exterminate the Negro population” has been overused by pro-life supporters for a long time now. Interestingly enough, if Ted Cruz looked into his own political party and its members I’m sure he’d find more about ad- vocacy for black genocide there than within the Sanger camp.
This kind of narrative throws salt into the wound of black Americans’ past with the healthcare system.
In Tuskegee, Alabama, black men were injected with syphilis without their consent or knowledge between the 1920s through the 1980s. Mississippi apendectomies was a name used for unnecessary hysterectomies done at teaching hospitals in the south on black women as practice for medical students.
From the 1920s until the 1980s, the horrifying medical practice provided “in- voluntary sterilization to poor, black women who were deemed unfit to reproduce.”
The term was created by civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer, who wanted to raise awareness on the issue due to the experience of going into the hospital to have a tumor removed but was instead sterilized.
In another case, the social worker of Elaine Riddick, a 14-year-old black girl, thought it was best to sterilize her due to her falling pregnant after having been raped and assaulted by her neighbor.
So, it was no wonder black people were weary about abortion education and contraceptives that were being promoted by white people. According to social justice advocate Dorothy Roberts, “sterilization became the most rapidly growing form of birth control in the United States, rising from 200,000 cases in 1970 to over 700,000 in 1980.” Additionally the face of the abortion rights movement in the 70s was notoriously white and according to Roberts, “it was a common belief among blacks in the South that black women were routinely sterilized without their informed consent and for no valid medical reason.”
Planned Parenthood never supported a black genocide. It is gross to use the trauma of one community for a political agenda and in this case the black community was targeted. This narrative is a full blown ploy by pro-life supporters to discredit an organization that has pioneered to have the right to make a choice about one’s own body since they opened their doors.
