Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Margaret Sanger’s eugenicist ideas were wrong in 1916, and they’re wrong now.

Today, Planned Parenthood North Central States released the statement below denouncing problematic portions of the organization’s history with founder Margaret Sanger.  Sanger’s position on eugenics is diametrically opposed to the organization’s purpose today: to build a world in which every person — regardless of race, income, insurance, gender identity, sexual orientation, abilities, or immigration status — can receive expert, compassionate health care, education, and information without shame or judgment.  We are owning our organization’s history and are committed to addressing the implicit bias and structural racism within our organization and communities.

Below is a statement from Planned Parenthood North Central States:

Like many organizations today, we are reckoning with elements of our past and present that contribute to the structural racism that continues to plague our country. We know that to achieve our mission of reproductive and sexual health and freedom, we must be clear about where we stand in relation to our history, and we must take action to dismantle systems of oppression that persist today.   

As a health care organization with over 100 years of history, Planned Parenthood provides crucial health services and we also acknowledge that some of our current work was built on a harmful past. Our founder, Margaret Sanger, perpetuated a number of problematic beliefs and actions. We want to be very clear that we vehemently denounce her ideology that certain people — specifically people of color, people with low incomes, and people with disabilities — should be prevented from having children. This repugnant belief runs directly counter to our organization’s current mission of supporting every person in choosing when and whether to become a parent.

Sanger’s promotion of eugenics was egregious and wrong. While we acknowledge the benefits that we have reaped from her advocacy for birth control, we take responsibility for the damage that was done. She willfully ignored the incredible harm that her beliefs caused, especially to people of color, people with disabilities, and people with low incomes. We condemn that behavior.

We must also recognize that today, anti-reproductive rights activists continue to attack Sanger as a strategy to undermine the crucial services Planned Parenthood currently provides. Those opposed to safe, legal abortion have cynically tried to perpetuate a myth that our organization “promotes Black genocide.” We support people to make their own decisions to control their own lives and futures. This autonomy is especially important for Black people and all people of color in this country, who face structural racism, including barriers to sexual and reproductive freedom and health care. 

Today, Planned Parenthood’s purpose is to build a world in which every person — regardless of race, income, insurance, gender identity, sexual orientation, abilities, or immigration status — can receive expert, compassionate health care, education, and information without shame or judgment. Our goal is to continue to improve and expand health care and education for those we serve. To do so, we are owning our organization’s history and are committed to addressing the implicit bias and structural racism that continues to exist within our organization and communities.  

With participation from all aspects of our organization, we will be reexamining how we talk about Sanger in all of our materials and spaces and will be revamping how we present our history in all forms.  We are dedicated to working through the many layers of this issue so we can improve our services across our region.

###

Planned Parenthood North Central States and its subsidiary organizations provide, promote, and protect reproductive and sexual health through high-quality care, education and advocacy. A member of America’s most trusted reproductive health care provider, our affiliate is proud to support and operate 29 health centers across our five-state region (Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota).  Each year, we provide health care to nearly 115,000 people and health education to more than 99,000 people in our region.

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of required cookies when utilizing our site; this includes necessary cookies that help our site to function (such as remembering your cookie preference settings). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.