In its 105th year, the Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) sharply turned its large ship in a different direction when it publicly disavowed its founder, Margaret Sanger and reckoned with its white supremacist history.
Over the prior 104 years, Conservatives have weaponized Sanger against Planned Parenthood by exposing the holes within white feminism. While liberals (defensively) hailed Sanger as the feminist pioneer of the Reproductive Rights movement who was a woman of her time.
If you are confused about Sanger, I am here to help clarify
For a heavily researched, in depth understanding of Sanger, I urge you to read Killing The Black Body by scholar and professor Dorothy Roberts. It refutes the “woman of her time” argument because as many know, Black and Indigenous women were purposefully not heard, despite their pushback, during Sanger’s time.
Roberts also unpacks the maternal colonialism endemic to Sanger’s work. For example, in her 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble (heir to Proctor and Gamble), she said, “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 to any of their more rebellious members.” When Sanger coined the term “birth control”, it was couched in the language of eugenics, which was defined by race and could never be understood apart from race.
Similarly damning to Sanger’s legacy is how the Germans learned from and modeled their sterilization laws from eugenicists (including Sanger) in the USA. Yes, it was those in the US who provided the framework for the Nazi compulsory sterilization law of 1933 which was eventually implemented during the Nazi Holocaust. Again, read the book.
Before I go on . . .
I want to underscore that I am indubitably grateful for Planned Parenthood and the services it has provided to me. And, as mentioned in my abortion story, during my process of decolonization, I have come to understand the deep chasms that have historically prevented Planned Parenthood from evolving, innovating and leading communities it serves in an equitable way.
Therefore, I was curious to learn what happened, internally, at PPGNY to finally turn the proverbial ship towards equitable reproductive freedom
So I reached out to my contacts at PPGNY and sat down with Merle McGee, Chief Equity and Engagement Officer and Fiona Kanagasingam, Chief Equity and Learning Officer to discuss everything from Sanger’s name removal to the expansive and bold future that they envision for the NY affiliate.