Barbara Pierce Bush headlines Planned Parenthood awards in Texas

Barbara Pierce Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, headlined an awards event for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas — the latest instance in a long history of Planned Parenthood advocacy from the Bush family.

Key Takeaways:

• Barbara Pierce Bush recently headlined the 35th Annual Planned Parenthood Dallas Awards.

• She is also expected to be featured at another Planned Parenthood event this spring.

• The Bush family — including Barbara's grandfather, George H.W. Bush, and great-grandfather, Prescott Bush — has a long legacy of promoting Planned Parenthood.

The Details:

Barbara Pierce Bush headlined the 35th Annual Dallas Awards for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, in which she appeared on stage alongside journalist Tashara Parker. Bush discussed her family, especially her late grandmother, the "unstoppable" former First Lady Barbara Bush.

She is also due to appear at the spring luncheon benefiting Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. This Planned Parenthood advocacy isn't new for Bush; she has been featured at Planned Parenthood events for years.

Considering that Bush's father, former President George W. Bush, claimed to hold pro-life views, it may seem surprising that she is a frequent collaborator with the nation's most prolific abortion chain. Yet the legacy of the Bush family is largely one that has favored and promoted Planned Parenthood.

The Backstory:

Barbara Pierce Bush is the co-founder of Global Health Corps (GHC), a public health-based non-profit organization which ostensibly offers opportunities to young professionals around the world. Previously, she has portrayed Planned Parenthood in a positive manner, and as an example of the kinds of organizations to which GHC helps connect young adults:

"It’s hard to know how you fit in if you’re not a doctor or nurse. If we can demystify that and create channels into Planned Parenthood and other exceptional organizations, then we’ll have an army of people working to solve health problems."

The Bush family has supported Planned Parenthood since its founding.

Prescott Bush

Prescott Bush, the father of former President George H.W. Bush, supported contraception and, by extension, the American Birth Control League, the organization founded by Margaret Sanger that would eventually become Planned Parenthood. In 1947, he even served as treasurer of its first fundraising campaign.

When he later ran for Senate in the 1950s, he lost after his ties to the group were exposed.

George H.W. Bush

His son, George H.W. Bush, became a supporter of Planned Parenthood himself when he entered politics.

“My own first awareness of birth control as a public policy issue came with a jolt in 1950 when my father was running for the United States Senate,” he wrote in the foreword to a 1973 book on the importance of family planning. "Drew Pearson, on the Sunday before Election Day, 'revealed' that my father was involved with Planned Parenthood. My father lost that election by a few hundred out of close to a million votes."

He further said he had been inspired by congressional testimony from Alan Guttmacher, a eugenics proponent who had been president of Planned Parenthood, and called for federal funding for contraception. Guttmacher was the individual who introduced abortion to Planned Parenthood in the 1960s.

As a congressman, Bush continued his advocacy for Planned Parenthood as well as population control through "family planning." He was the main backer among Republicans for the legislation that created the federally-funded Title X family planning program, which gives millions of dollars in funding to Planned Parenthood affiliates each year.

In 1972, as the United States Representative to the United Nations, Bush congratulated Guttmacher on a family planning stamp for which Planned Parenthood had been lobbying.

It wasn't until 1988 that he openly described himself as pro-life, saying his view on the position had evolved (which is an interesting story on its own). Yet he continued to support family planning (birth control), writing in 1989:

"... I strongly support family planning and have always favored disseminating information on birth control.

I do not favor advocating abortion in any way, shape, or form.

Planned Parenthood, to my regret, has chosen to be in the forefront of the pro-choice, or pro-abortion position…. 

I will welcome any suggestion you care to send on how we might do a better job of education on family planning, but my mind is made up on the abortion question.

His sons, George W. Bush and Jeb Bush (pictured above), stated that they were pro-life.

The Bottom Line:

The Bush family legacy surrounding abortion and Planned Parenthood was, and remains, complicated.

Sadly, Barbara Pierce Bush's continued work and advocacy for the nation's most profitable abortion organization only adds to that anti-life legacy.