Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced Tuesday that it would remove the name of the founder of the national organization from its Manhattan clinic because of its “racist legacy” stemming from its well-documented connections to the eugenic movement.
The Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Health Center will be renamed, and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York is working with the city to rename an honorary street sign marked “Margaret Sanger Square” on the corner where the center, PPGNY said in a statement.
The decision comes as a result of “a public commitment to having its founder’s damaging connections to the eugenic movement,” the statement said.
“Removing Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is a long overdue step in recognizing our legacy and recognizing Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” said PPGNY board chair Karen. Seltzer. “Margaret Sanger’s reproductive health concerns and advocacy have been clearly documented, but so has her racist legacy.”
Sanger, a nurse, established the first birth control clinic in the United States, in New York City, and founded the American League for Birth Control, which would become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America .
A 2016 Planned Parenthood fact sheet on Sanger highlights his accomplishments and acknowledges his problematic views.
“As a woman of heroic achievement, Margaret Sanger had some beliefs, practices, and associations that we recognize, denounce, and work to rectify today. Her life story provides a bold, fascinating, formidable, humane, complicated, and flawed portrait,” she said. the organization in 2016.
In founding The Birth Control Review, Sanger attempted to align himself with the American eugenic movement.
“As their most basic belief, eugenicists argued that careful ‘breeding’ could improve the human race by limiting population growth and reducing the frequency of undesirable genetic attributes, such as hereditary diseases. In its most malicious form, eugenicists argued that forced breeding or sterilization could increase or decrease certain ethnic populations, “the fact sheet said. “Eugenics was adopted across the political spectrum, from conservatives to socialists, so much embraced that it was taught in universities.”
“In the 1920s, many eugenicists (who were mostly white) applied their theory in a racist manner, falsely assuming that many ethnic groups were biologically inferior,” but Sanger wrote in 1934 that if “by ‘unfit’ he means the physical or mental defects of a human being, it is an admirable gesture, but if “unsuitable” refers to races or religions, then that is another matter, which I frankly regret, “the fact sheet said.
Still, Sanger endorsed the 1927 Buck v. Decision. Bell that allowed states to sterilize citizens who were deemed “unfit” without their consent.
“NOTE: We denounce your endorsement of the Buck v. Bell decision, as well as your involvement in the American eugenic movement and your adherence to some of its principles and values,” says the 2016 Planner Parenthood fact sheet.
The 18-page biography also said that Sanger “never forgot those marginalized by racial health inequities.” He opened a family planning clinic in Harlem in 1930 that was praised by black leaders like WEB Du Bois and Malcolm X and “established birth control clinics in the rural and poor areas of the south to largely serve African American women.” , according to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has come under fire for honoring Sanger. Most recently, a June 18 letter signed by more than 350 “current and former employees of Greater New York Planned Parenthood” and around 800 donors stated: “Planned Parenthood was founded by a racist white woman.”
The letter, from a group called Save PPGNY, also called for the removal of its executive director, Laura McQuade, accused of ignoring and perpetuating racism in the workplace.
“While efforts have been made to undo some of the damage caused by institutional racism, many of these problems have worsened under McQuade’s mandate,” the letter said. “After years of staff complaints about issues of systemic racism, pay inequality, and lack of upward mobility for black staff, highly-paid consultants were hired on three different occasions to assess the situation. Each time, employees of color were brutally honest about their experiences, but nothing changed. It is not possible to do justice to the scope and severity of this problem here. “
McQuade was expelled in late June.
In an interview with The New York Times at the time, he said that while he believes the allegations against him are not true, “this is not the time to refute them.”
“I feel nothing but goodwill towards the organization and I want them to succeed,” he said. “The work that we have undertaken together for the past three years has been one of the most important jobs of my life.”
Last year, PPGNY established the Reviving Radical initiative, a “commitment and framework for holding back dialogues and elevating a vision of redress and transformation that communities of color and reproductive justice leaders have been calling for for decades.”
One of Reviving Radicals’ goals was to understand “how our organizational history and Margret Sanger’s perceptions have impacted and continue to affect communities of color,” according to PPGNY, who said that more than 300 New Yorkers of color have participated in conversations about the topic. .
Tuesday’s announcement “reflects the first of many organizational changes to address Sanger’s legacy and institutional racism system, which negatively impacts the well-being of PPGNY patients, staff and the broader communities,” said the PPGNY statement. .
Plans for the new name of the center and the plaza will soon be announced.
“While this occurs at a time when the entire nation is relying on its sordid past and present realities of racial injustice, I am even more encouraged that this symbolic gesture is also accompanied by a deeper commitment to take even bolder steps toward institutional transformation. ” Reviving Radical Commissioner Lynn Roberts said, “May the fulfillment of these mandates by this organization serve as a guide for other organizations that are embarking on becoming anti-racist organizations not only in name but also in practice.”
