I'm the Head of Planned Parenthood. We're Done Making Excuses for Our Founder.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/opinion/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger.html

By Alexis McGill Johnson

Ms. McGill Johnson is the president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

We need to talk about Margaret Sanger.

For the 11 years that I’ve been involved with Planned Parenthood, founded by Sanger, her legacy on race has been debated. Sanger, a nurse, opened the nation’s first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1916, and dedicated her life to promoting birth control to improve women’s lives. But was she, or was she not, racist?

It’s a question that we’ve tried to avoid, but we no longer can. We must reckon with it.

Up until now, Planned Parenthood has failed to own the impact of our founder’s actions. We have defended Sanger as a protector of bodily autonomy and self-determination, while excusing her association with white supremacist groups and eugenics as an unfortunate “product of her time.” Until recently, we have hidden behind the assertion that her beliefs were the norm for people of her class and era, always being sure to name her work alongside that of W.E.B. Dubois and other Black freedom fighters. But the facts are complicated.

If you're interested in reproductive justice at all, I encourage you to read the entire article, as this discussion is about much, much more than Sanger.

[The Magistrate]

1. An Excellent Piece

Thank you for bringing it forward.

It is important to place persons and their views in the context of their own times, but this can be taken too far.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. .

[niyad]

2. Thank you so much for posting this very important piece on this very difficult topic.

However uncomfortable, this is a conversation that must be had.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. yw

[stopdiggin]

5. History is replete with it

Racism is commonplace, and a fact of life. Has ever been commonplace and a fact of life. And the fact is, you cannot look at this country's history -- or human history -- without running headlong into that basic truth. I don't think it is 'dismissive' or 'apologetic' to state that Sanger (or ___, insert laudable figure here) was both a product of her times -- and a racist. Abe Lincoln himself was very ambivalent about the abilities of blacks, or the place they would ever take in 'society.' It is not a conundrum, it is a feature! It is silly to pussy-foot or play down the subject -- on the other hand, it IS absolutely 'normative.' It is absolutely who we are -- and who we were.

[elias7]

6. Interesting link within article critique of PP late in embracing "reproductive justice" concept

https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2014/08/05/reproductive-justice-choice-open-letter-planned-parenthood/