Is Planned Parenthood scrubbing its eugenicist founder’s name from its awards?

Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a notorious eugenicist whose namesake has been used on Planned Parenthood’s top awards to journalists and others who help the organization push its pro-abortion ideals in society. In addition to meeting with members of the Ku Klux Klan, about which Sanger wrote in her autobiography, the Planned Parenthood founder also advocated forced sterilization to rid the planet of those she deemed “unfit.”

Margaret Sanger: Eugenicist and Founder of Planned Parenthood

Despite knowing Sanger’s associations with the Klan and eugenics, Planned Parenthood not only named their top awards in Sanger’s honor – they “honored” complicit media, journalists and politicians with no outrage from civil rights organizations or the rest of the media. The presentations fell under two award categories: the “Maggie Award” and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America “Margaret Sanger Award.”

It seems, however, that these awards may have been retired — at least temporarily. The reason is unknown.

Recently awarded were notable media outlets and journalists from MSNBC, Yahoo-Health, Buzzfeed, The New Yorker, CBS, Washington Post, Austin Chronicle, Huffington Post, The Plain Dealer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, US News & World Report, Waco Tribune-Herald, Chicago Tribune, CNN, NBC, New York Daily News, PBS Frontline, The Kansas City Star, People magazine, San Diego Union-Tribune, ABC News, Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Metro Times, Cedar Rapids Gazette, The Houston Chronicle, Concord Monitor, The Philadelphia Daily News, The San Diego Union, San Francisco Examiner, Newsweek Magazine, Lifetime Television, ABC Radio, Arkansas Gazette, Los Angeles Times, NBC Radio, The Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Bergen Record, Charlotte News and Observer, and Gannett News Service.

Maggie Award:

According to a Planned Parenthood 2015 press release, the “Maggie Award” was “inaugurated in 1978 and named after Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.” A cached PP website reveals that the award recognized “exceptional contributions by journalists in print, online, and broadcast media that enhance the public’s understanding of reproductive rights and health care issues, including contraception, sex education, teen pregnancy, abortion, and international family planning.”

Today, if you search for the “Maggie Award” which was last issued in 2015, you won’t find it on Planned Parenthood’s website.

The reason?

Planned Parenthood quietly seems to have erased Sanger’s name from that portion of the website. Planned Parenthood simply exchanged the word “Maggie” with “Media,” as demonstrated below.  They did this without fanfare or explanation, offering no denunciation, despite knowing Sanger’s associations with the Klan and eugenics. In fact, Sanger’s name was listed as recently as 2016 — which means that the awards these journalists received were issued in the name of Margaret Sanger, not “Media” — and to date, it seems no one has returned the award or publicly rejected the “honor” named after the eugenicist founder.

This cached version at Way Back Machine is proof to how the website originally read. You can see that the current “Media Excellence” page mirrors the old version referencing the “Maggie Award,” and Sanger is no longer located on the PPFA website.

Margaret Sanger Award

For years, pro-life groups have criticized the fact that Planned Parenthood’s highest award was named after Sanger. The corporation’s “Margaret Sanger Award” is still showing on Planned Parenthood’s website, and reveals it was issued to abortionist Willie Parker, a beloved abortionist recently accused of sexual misconduct in 2015.

Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi received the infamous Sanger award the previous year.

What is interesting is that the Maggie Award page (now scrubbed) and the Margaret Sanger Award page both reveal that neither award has been given since 2015. One can only speculate why that is. Perhaps Planned Parenthood is no longer offering the “honors” named after their founder — or is it possible that, because of the exposure by pro-life organizations, few are willing to receive it? The latter seems unlikely, but whatever the reason, Planned Parenthood continues to view Sanger as a heroine, even naming Planned Parenthood facilities after her, as well as several Margaret Sanger Legacy Societies which fundraise for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The NY Margaret Sanger Society claims the money they raise will “ensure our future for generations to come.”

The Margaret Sanger Society in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, will “create opportunities to recognize Sanger Society members throughout the year, including an annual event each spring. These events provide members with the opportunity to meet our staff, receive updates on our programs, and visit with other like-minded supporters.”

Planned Parenthood’s legacy is eugenics; their own ties to the disturbing philosophy run very deep, as Live Action News has previously documented.  And the media and PP’s political supporters, which have been regularly “honored” in the name of Sanger, continue to funnel half a billion in taxpayer dollars into the abortion corporation’s coffers year after year.

Planned Parenthood’s founder will never be the kind of person society should “celebrate” — instead she and her eugenics ideology should be denounced.

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