Sanger’s assistants gave Braun more pro-birth control literature and a copy of her autobiography, which he gave to his wife to read. Sanger’s message of preventing maternal and infant mortality stirred Braun’s wife. Now convinced of this need, Braun permitted a group of women to use his chapel for a birth-control talk. "[I was] moved by the number of prominent [black] Christians backing the proposition," Braun wrote in a letter to Sanger. "At first glance I had a horrible shock to the proposition because it seemed to me to be allied to abortion, but after thought and prayer, I have concluded that especially among many women, it is necessary both to save the lives of mothers and children [emphasis added]."

By 1949, Sanger had hoodwinked black America’s best and brightest into believing birth control’s "life-saving benefits." In a monumental feat, she bewitched virtually an entire network of black social, professional and academic organizations into endorsing Planned Parenthood’s eugenic program.

Sanger’s successful duplicity does not in any way suggest blacks were gullible. They certainly wanted to decrease maternal and infant mortality and improve the community’s overall health. They wholly accepted her message because it seemed to promise prosperity and social acceptance. Sanger used their vulnerabilities and their ignorance (of her deliberately hidden agenda) to her advantage. Aside from birth control, she offered no other medical or social solutions to their adversity. Surely, blacks would not have been such willing accomplices had they perceived her true intentions. Considering the role eugenics played in the early birth control movement–and Sanger’s embracing of that ideology–the notion of birth control as seemingly the only solution to the problems that plagued blacks should have been much more closely scrutinized.

"Scientific Racism"

Planned Parenthood has gone to great lengths to repudiate the organization’s eugenic origins. It adamantly denies Sanger was a eugenicist or racist, despite evidence to the contrary. Because Sanger stopped editing The Birth Control Review in 1929, the organization tries to disassociate her from the eugenic and racist-oriented articles published after that date. However, a summary of an address Sanger gave in 1932, which appeared in the Review that year, revealed her continuing bent toward eugenics.

In "A Plan for Peace," Sanger suggested Congress set up a special department to study population problems and appoint a "Parliament of Population." One of the main objectives of the "Population Congress" would be "to raise the level and increase the general intelligence of population." This would be accomplished by applying a "stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation [ in addition to tightening immigration laws] to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring."

It’s reasonable to conclude that as the leader of Planned Parenthood–even after 1929–Sanger would not allow publication of ideas she didn’t support.

Sanger’s defenders argue she only wanted to educate blacks about birth control’s "health benefits." However, she counted the very people she wanted to "educate" among the "unfit," whose numbers needed to be restricted.

Grant presents other arguments Sanger’s supporters use to refute her racist roots:

• blacks, Jews, Hispanics and other minorities are well represented in the
• the former, high-profile president of the organization, Faye Wattleton, is a black woman;
• "aggressive" minority hiring practices have been standard procedure for more than two decades;
• the "vast majority of the nation’s ethnic leadership solidly and actively supports the work" of the organization.

These justifications also fail because of what Grant calls "scientific racism." This form of racism is based on genes, rather than skin color or language. "The issue is not ‘color of skin’ or ‘dialect of tongue,’" Grant writes, "but ‘quality of genes [emphasis added].’" Therefore, "as long as blacks, Jews and Hispanics demonstrate ‘a good quality gene pool’–as long as they ‘act white and think white’–then they are esteemed equally with Aryans. As long as they are, as Margaret Sanger said, ‘the best of their race,’ then they can be [counted] as valuable citizens [emphasis added]." By the same token, "individual whites" who shoe "dysgenic traits" must also have their fertility "curbed right along with the other ‘inferiors and undesirables.’"

In short, writes Grant, "Scientific racism is an equal opportunity discriminator [emphasis added]. Anyone with a ‘defective gene pool’ is suspect. And anyone who shows promise may be admitted to the ranks of the elite."

The eugenic undertone is hard to miss. As Grant rightly comments, "The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood was self-consciously organized, in part, to promote and enforce White Supremacy. ... It has been from its inception implicitly and explicitly racist."

"There is no way to escape the implications," argues William L. Davis, a black financial analyst Grant quotes. "When an organization has a history of racism, when its literature is openly racist, when it goals are self-consciously racial, and when its programs invariably revolve around race, it doesn’t take an expert to realize that the organization is indeed racist."

Its is impossible to sever Planned Parenthood’s past from its present. Its legacy of lies and propaganda continues to infiltrate the black community. This poison is even more venomous because, in addition to birth control, Planned Parenthood touts abortion as a solution to the economic and social problems that plague the community. In its wake is the loss of more than 12 million lives within the black community alone. Planned Parenthood’s own record reflect this. For example, a 1992 report revealed that 23.2 percent of women who obtained abortions at its affiliates were black---although blacks represent no more than 13 percent of the total population. In 1996, Planned Parenthood’s research arm reported: "Blacks, who make up 14 percent of all childbearing women, have 31 percent of all abortions and whites, who account for 81 percent of women of childbearing age, have 61 percent."

"Abortion is the number-one killer of blacks in America," says Rev. Hunter of LEARN. "We’re losing our people at the rate of 1,452 a day. That’s just pure genocide. There’s no other word for it. [Sanger’s] influence and the whole mindset that Planned Parenthood has brought into the black community ... say it’s okay to destroy your people. We bought into the lie; we bought into the propaganda."

Some blacks have even made abortion "right" synonymous with civil rights.

"We’re destroying the destiny and purpose of others who should be here," Hunter laments. "Who knows the musicians we’ve lost? Who knows the great leaders the black community has really lost? Who knows what great minds of economic power people have lost? What great teachers?" He recites an old African proverb: "No one knows whose womb holds the chief."

Hunter has personally observed the vestiges of Planned Parenthood’s eugenic past in the black community today. "When I travel around the country...I can only think of one abortion clinic [I’ve seen] in a predominantly white neighborhood. The majority of clinics are in black neighborhoods."

Hunter noted the controversy that occurred tow years ago in Louisiana involving school-based health clinics. The racist undertone could not have been more evident. In the Baton Rouge district, officials were debating placing clinics in the high schools. Black state representative Sharon Weston Broome initially supported the idea. She later expressed concern about clinics providing contraceptives and abortion counseling. "Clinics should promote abstinence," she said. Upon learning officials wanted to put the clinics in black schools only, Hunter urged her to suggest they be placed in white schools as well. At Broome’s suggestion, however, proposals for t he school clinics were "dropped immediately," reported Hunter.

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