Wanna celebrate abortion? Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE) does. Last month, the organization brought their Abortion Positive bus tour to 10 college campuses. Rather than “see abortion as a bad word,” URGE thinks it’s “a public good.” They aren’t the only ones.
Black children face the highest risk of being aborted, something plenty of racists are happy about. It isn’t surprising when you look at the way America’s largest abortion chain has targeted them. Using data from the 2010 U.S. census, the group Protecting Black Life has created a map showing how Planned Parenthood disproportionately locates its abortion centers in or near minority neighborhoods.
Federal funding for Planned Parenthood started under under President Richard Nixon, a man who favored aborting children of mixed race and cited abortion as a means “to control the negro bastards.” Of course, the tie between Planned Parenthood and racism goes back a lot farther than that.
Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, advocated “race betterment” through “drastic immigration laws.” She also spoke at a Ku Klux Klan rally, something she described on page 366 of her autobiography. According to Sanger, “a dozen invitations to speak to similar groups” followed.
Given this history, it’s not surprising that the group Sanger founded would be willing to work with bigots. In 2008, undercover footage from Live Action caught Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to take donations from people who said they wanted black kids aborted.
But racists aren’t the only ones Planned Parenthood has been okay with. Child sex predators also have an “abortion positive” outlook, and with good reason: in case after case, Planned Parenthood has helped keep their crimes hidden and their victims suffering.
Human traffickers don’t think abortion’s as a bad word either. Captain Jeff Williams of the Dallas Department of Public Safety testified before a state legislative hearing that pimps frequently use abortion to exploit their victims. That doesn’t seem to bother some of Planned Parenthood’s staff.
When Live Action investigators went to a Planned Parenthood center in Perth Amboy, NJ while posing as sex traffickers, it didn’t raise eyebrows. In fact, the facility’s director offered to arrange abortions for teens who “can’t speak English” and “won’t know what’s going on.” Staff at other locations weren’t alarmed either.
Is the fact that Planned Parenthood helps racists and traffickers shocking? If so, then here’s another shock: you’re helping them too. Every year, Planned Parenthood receives half a billion dollars of your tax money.
While some argue Planned Parenthood fills an essential role, that just isn’t the case. Across the country, federally qualified health centers (FQHC) and community health centers (CHCs) are a more accessible care option. They also offer a greater range of services, performing over five hundred thousand mammograms annually–five hundred thousand more than Planned Parenthood.
Tell Congress Planned Parenthood’s funding should go to FQHCs and CHCs instead. Because despite what URGE (as wells as bigots, rapists, and human traffickers) might think, abortion isn’t a “public good.” Defunding Planned Parenthood would be.
