The Origin and Purpose of Planned Parenthood

Since the organization, Planned Parenthood, has been in the news several times in recent weeks, it is probably time to remind ourselves of what the origin of this organization was and what its main purpose seems to be. According to Wikipedia, which is not unfriendly toward Planned Parenthood, the organization had its origins with Margaret Sanger and her sister who opened a clinic in Brooklyn in 1916. Much of the information in this article, however, will come primarily from the thoroughly-documented book, Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood, by George Grant, published in 1988, with the second edition printed in 1992. There may be later editions. The 1992 copy this writer has contains ten pages of endorsements at the front of the book. One of those was by Marlin Maddeoux, the host of Point of View (now deceased). More than twenty years ago he wrote:

Planned Parenthood is guilty of crimes so ghastly they are scarcely believable. That's why the gripping case presented in Grand Illusions is must reading. The horrifying facts behind the abortion and sex education industry simply must be exposed, and George Grant does the job in spell-binding fashion.

Wikipedia presents a much more flattering assessment of the organization. It says: "Planned Parenthood is the largest U.S. provider of reproductive health services, with 97% of its services focused on breast and cervical cancer screening, HIV screening and counseling, contraception, and 3% on abortion, although these numbers have been challenged." That last clause is probably the truthful part of the story. Imagine a women's health agency that does not even do mammograms! The statement goes on to say that Planned Parenthood does about 300,000 abortions every year. If these figures are correct, that still makes them the nation's largest abortion provider, and they are conducting more than 800 abortions every single day of the year in their various clinics throughout the United States.

With a little research on the Internet, one can watch the interviews with Planned Parenthood that parts of have been shown on Fox News (certain news outlets are ignoring or downplaying what has come to light). One interview, for example, involves Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, describing how they sell the body parts of aborted babies—even admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to supply intact body tissue. This is only the beginning of the grisly story that would sicken most normal individuals.

Several Republican candidates have called for defunding of Planned Parenthood, which admittedly (by their own statistics) perform 300,000 abortions a year. Why are they getting any funding from the government when they are destroying human lives? [The mentioning of any candidate's name should not be construed as an endorsement; those names used just relate to this article.] A few weeks ago Bill O'Reilly was interviewing New Jersey governor Chris Christie. He asked what had changed his mind from the pro-choice position he once held. He said that it occurred two decades ago. His wife was 13 weeks pregnant and was not even showing yet. They looked at a sonogram and listened to the beating heart. From that day forward, he has been pro-life and defunded Planned Parenthood in his state.

Not all candidates are opposed to Planned Parenthood. In fact, Hillary Clinton accepted Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger Award in Houston when she was Secretary of State (2009). At that time, Clinton acknowledged: "I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision. I am really in awe of her, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from her life." Wow! She may have said more than she intended to.

In an interview within the past two weeks, another presidential candidate, Dr. Ben Carson talked about the origin of Planned Parenthood and cited the racial bias against Blacks, pointing out that many Planned Parenthoods remain in neighborhoods populated largely by Blacks. So what is the history to which he refers?

Margaret Sanger

Hillary Clinton is not the only one who had offered praise for Margaret Sanger. High words of commendation have also been heaped upon her by Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, and Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower (Grant 47). So what's the problem? Many have never, apparently, dug very deep into who Margaret Sanger was or what she believed. She had a rebellious streak in her to begin with, but after reading the seven volumes of Havelock Ellis' The Psychology of Sex, her anti-social behavior took off like an athletic runner on steroids. Her husband was shocked when she told him that "she needed emancipation from every taint of Christianized capitalism, including the strict bonds of the marriage bed" (51). Grant cites three different authors in saying:

Eugene O'Neill took on one mistress after another, immortalizing them in his plays. Edna St. Vincent Millay "hopped gaily from bed to bed" and wrote about it in her poems. Max Eastman, Emma Goldman, Floyd Dell, Rockwell Kent, Edgar Lee Masters, and many others had for some time enjoyed unrestrained sexploits. But no one had championed sexual freedom as openly and ardently as Margaret (52).

The time was approaching the Roaring Twenties, and Margaret Sanger was a lioness predator. She began publishing a paper, which was (appropriately enough) titled, The Woman Rebel. On the masthead was the slogan: "No Gods! No Master!" "The first issue denounced marriage as a 'degenerate institution,' capitalism as an 'indecent exploitation,' and sexual modesty as 'obscene prudery'" (53). Her fanaticism for social revolution included "defending political assassinations" (54). Although former President Theodore Roosevelt and the popular religious figure, Billy Sunday, came out with severe criticism of her, she always seemed to find "respectable" supporters who lent her credibility (59).

Although she had decried marriage as a "degenerate institution" and had divorced her husband, she could not resist marrying again, when the object of her affection possessed nine million dollars and was president of the Three-in-One Oil Company. In a rather weird pre-nuptial agreement, the "lucky" groom agreed that "Margaret would be free to come and go as she pleased with no questions asked" (60). She took full advantage of the document. She lived in her own apartment within the home, and her "husband" had to telephone her for a date from the other end of the house (60).

Birth Control

Someone might wonder if the foregoing characterizations of Margaret Sanger are irrelevant. As they say in court, it goes to motive—particularly to the reason she founded Planned Parenthood. Originally, Sanger called it the Birth Control League (58), but in 1938, she changed the name to the new one because "it connoted a positive program and conveyed a clean, wholesome, family-oriented image" (61). The agency promotes sexuality in all its forms—self-fulfillment, pre-marital, homosexuality, and sexual experimentation (64). Of course, the organization encourages the practice of birth control, but for those mistakes that people make, abortion is always a "viable" alternative.

The Rise of Eugenics

Just to confirm some of the material in this book, although Grant documents everything he writes, a different source will be used to introduce more information about the founder of Planned Parenthood. According to Wikipedia, Eugenics is

the social movement claiming to improve the genetic features of human populations through selective breeding and sterilization, based on the idea that it is possible to distinguish between superior and inferior elements of society…. [It] played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States prior to its involvement in World War II…. During the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th century, eugenics was considered a method of preserving and improving the dominant groups in the population….

Yes, it is as bad as it sounds: selective breeding, sterilization, superior and inferior elements of society, a method of…improving the dominant groups in the population. Anyone who is not shuddering at what these words imply does not understand their meaning. That they were popular prior to World War II provides a hint. Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood were very much a part of this movement. George Grant comments on the phenomenon:

Through his writings, Thomas Malthus had convinced an entire generation of scientists, intellectuals, and social reformers that the world was facing an imminent economic crisis caused by unchecked human fertility…. But the rest felt the solution was genetic—restrict or eliminate "bad" racial stocks, and gradually "aid" the evolutionary ascent of man (93).

In case anyone misunderstands, many of these believed in White Supremacy. Bearing these things in mind will help to explain the statements that Margaret Sanger made in her book, The Pivot of Civilization. In 1922 she reproved social workers and churches for perpetuating "the cruelty of charity." She lamented that it was helping to breed defective people. She added that it was "insidiously injurious" to provide maternity care for poor women. She concluded by saying that it was a necessity to regulate the fertility of the working class; those who disagreed with her were "benign imbeciles, who encourage the defective and diseased elements of humanity in their reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning" (27). In this book she also called for the sterilization of "genetically inferior races" (59), which probably did not include hers.

One wonders how anyone ever got away with advocating such things, but it gets worse. In 1939 Margaret and her friends designed the "Negro Project" in response to "southern state public health officials"—men who were probably racist. The project proposal asserted that Negroes in the South "still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among Whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit" (97). After reading just a small sampling of her comments, how is it that society does not brand her a racist instead of honoring her? [Note: one writer said that this statement was taken out of context and was actually stated by W.E.B. duBois.]

Also allegedly taken out of context was this quote: "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population." The claim is made that Sanger did not want that message to get out because it was not true. However, it seems credible because it is consistent with many other comments. Anyone who can provide the entire context of the statement would do everyone a favor. Claims and counter-claims do no good without the context itself. She surely said enough other things that she ought not be misrepresented. However, the evidence is clear that she advocated no sexual morality at all and was opposed to it.

The philosophy of Planned Parenthood has not changed since its inception—except that it may not be as racist as it once was. But it still reflects the ideology of its founder, who encouraged women to engage in sexual activities as often as possible so that women can be "liberated." Certainly, Sanger believed and practiced this philosophy. Grant cites Madeline Gray's biography of the founder of Planned Parenthood. Obviously she was a leading proponent of "free love," but even in her old age she taught her 16-year-old granddaughter that all forms of lascivious behavior were all right as long as she was "sincere." If that sincerity led to three experiences a day, that was "just about right" (64).

Planned Parenthood still encourages experimentation today. For years they gave out a book (and may yet), Our Bodies, Ourselves, which early in the book invites young girls to pleasure themselves (42-44). When representatives are allowed to make presentations to high schools classes, many are at first impressed with the confident woman speaking to them but later are appalled at what she said—even showing pornography. In one instance, several of the girls began to cry, one fainted, and still "another ran out of the room and threw up" (109). This organization deserves no respect and absolutely no funding from the taxpayers—whether used for abortions or not.

Now we can all throw up while watching videos of Planned Parenthood representatives eating a fresh, crisp salad while talking about getting top dollar for parts from babies and affirming that they need to be careful on the way the abortions are done so that they can get the most money. One of the seven abominations in Proverbs 6:16-19 involves "hands that shed innocent blood." Considering all the depopulation this organization is responsible for, they could rightly be called, as they were by some a few years ago, Planned Barrenhood.

Suggestions

But, as Paul Harvey used to say, wash your ears out with this: Many young men and women have not fallen for the propaganda that Planned Parenthood puts out. They do not believe that they have no self-control; they believe they can wait for marriage—and be faithful to the one they choose to marry. Not everyone is influenced by what they see on television, in the movies, or in magazines. Not everyone submits to the "party" mentality of college life. A substantial amount of young people have resisted the temptations the devil has hurled at them. Suggestion number one is that we continue to pray for our young people.

Number two is: Get a copy of Grant's book, read it, and share the information in it concerning Margaret Sanger and the origin of Planned Parenthood. Third, make certain that you watch at least a portion of the interviews (although they will sicken and disgust). Fourth, encourage your senator or representative to defund Planned Parenthood immediately. This should not be a partisan issue. It's time America found out the truth about this organization.