REJECT Planned Parenthood: Discrimination shouldn’t be funded by taxpayers

Even as government agencies clearly prohibit discrimination, it appears that one corporation regularly accused of racism continues to receive taxpayer funding. That corporation is Planned Parenthood, which was founded by eugenicists and which has in recent years also been accused of systemic racism toward clients and employees.

In its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood showed that it received nearly $700 million in taxpayer funding. As of June 30, 2023, the organization’s net assets (minus liabilities) had risen to over $2.9 billion — the highest recorded in recent years.

Though Planned Parenthood — with the help of media elites awarded by the organization — has tried to dismiss its past, it cannot change the fact that for a century, it repeatedly defended and honored its founder Margaret Sanger, even putting her name on its flagship facility in Manhattan. Eventually, when the corporation could no longer deny its eugenicist and racist history, it succumbed to societal pressure to — at least externally — “cancel” Sanger.

But Sanger is just the tip of the iceberg of the discrimination uncovered at this organization.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Planned Parenthood has discriminated against certain people groups from its beginnings, with the help of members of the eugenics movement.

• Internal audits as well as numerous reports and lawsuits from individuals allege that Planned Parenthood is, to this day, still engaging in racist and discriminatory practices.

• Given its lengthy history of racism and discrimination against both clients and employees, Planned Parenthood should be disqualified from receiving federal taxpayer funding, which is only granted to recipients which do not engage in acts of discrimination or racism.

Discriminatory from the beginning

Founded by avowed eugenicist Margaret Sanger as the American Birth Control League, Planned Parenthood as an organization was embedded from its foundations with fellow eugenicists who endorsed dangerous ideas that they believed would lead to a decrease in certain people groups — those to whom Sanger referred as “human weeds.” The Eugenics Society was so directly tied to Planned Parenthood that at one point, it gave Planned Parenthood office accommodations rent free.

Abortion is a tool of eugenics, and was introduced to Planned Parenthood by the organization’s then-president, Dr Alan F. Guttmacher, (former VP of the American Eugenics Society and founder of the Guttmacher Institute). In 1966, Guttmacher proposed a blueprint to force taxpayers to pay for birth control access for the poor. Within a few short years, Guttmacher’s “blueprint” became a reality.

Planned Parenthood today is “steeped in white supremacy”

In July 2020, hundreds of past and current Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) employees published an open letter, alleging that the abortion organization was “founded by a racist, white woman” and also had a “present steeped in white supremacy.” Additional employees at other affiliates told BuzzFeed News they witnessed “open racism,” endured “segregated” offices, and experienced overall unequal treatment of Black and minority employees at multiple PP centers across the country.

Multiple affiliates later acknowledged Planned Parenthood’s present-day “systemic racism.” Nineteen separate affiliates with operations in 33 states issued statements admitting to racism. An internal audit also confirmed that Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has a racism problem.

Live Action previously uncovered Planned Parenthood’s willingness to accept racially-discriminatory donations, and one former staffer claimed the organization trained her to offer financial assistance to only Black women seeking abortions — not to women “who sounded white.” She recalled that she felt like a “slave trader.”

Years ago, former Planned Parenthood president Faye Wattleton revealed how she was aware of supporters who contributed to Planned Parenthood to “keep the Black population down.” Wattleton admitted in a debate on CNN with Congressman Bob Dornan, “…[W]e have received contributions from people who want to support us because they want all welfare mothers and all Black women to stop having children.”

Planned Parenthood Accepts Racist Donations

A lengthy history of racism accusations at Planned Parenthood

Dr. Laverne Tolbert, a former board member of Planned Parenthood NYC (1975-1980), told Newsmax TV, “There is no way to justify continuing to fund Planned Parenthood. Its roots are racist!”

What Dr. Tolbert discovered would later be repeated by many Planned Parenthood staffers: it wasn’t just Planned Parenthood’s roots that were racist. Let’s go back in time and follow the trail of racism at this taxpayer-funded corporation.

2025: In February, the New York Times wrote a scathing report, claiming, “Scores of former employees have sued Planned Parenthood, raising complaints that include… firing people who complained about discrimination or clinic practices.”

2024:  First Alert 4 reported that Teona McGhaw filed a lawsuit against Advocates of PP of the St. Louis Region & Southwest Missouri, alleging she was terminated from her position because she is Black; Planned Parenthood has disputed McGhaw’s claim.

2024: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported at least two dozen racial discrimination lawsuits had been filed against various Planned Parenthood affiliates, with staffers claiming racism was an inherent part of the company’s culture. One lawsuit alleged a hostile work environment where Black employees were treated “with disdain,” while a Black nurse practitioner claimed she was laid off after her manager threw a patient’s urine sample at her desk.

2023: Samuel Ricardo Mitchell Jr., described by PPGNY as the affiliate’s Chief Operating Officer, claimed comments made by PPGNY leadership were “stained with racist overtones” and alleged he was passed over for promotion in favor of a white staffer and was discriminated against for his religion.

2022: A lawsuit filed by Ilana Gamza-Machado de Souza, a Jewish woman who worked as a Senior Brand Marketing Director in the Communications & Culture Department, alleged antisemitism on the part of Planned Parenthood.

2021: A lawsuit filed by former employee Nicole Moore, alleged that Planned Parenthood “tokenized” staff of color and often retaliated against them when they spoke up. The 51-page lawsuit alleges tokenism, mistreatment, and retaliation. She says the corporation “has not taken a single step to remedy the race discrimination which continues to harm its staff of color.” Moore claimed that Black employees had dealt with lower pay for more work, hostility, unequal hiring and promotion, and more, but Planned Parenthood merely “doubled down by punishing employees of color who dare to speak up… creating working conditions so intolerable that they are effectively forced to leave.”

Renee Bracey Sherman, a former PP consultant mentioned in the suit, told The Daily Beast that “white supremacy and exploitation” were “underlying our movement.”

2021: Chris Charbonneau, CEO of a Seattle-based PP affiliate with nearly 40 years at the corporation, was fired after being accused of racism.

2016: Asia Blunt, a Black woman with a disability, filed a discrimination lawsuit claiming Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri fired her because of her race. Blunt said she “witnessed numerous instances of discriminatory and disparate treatment toward other African American employees, including in hiring, discipline, and termination.”

2007: Brenda Joyner, a senior diversity executive for PPFA (2004-2006), sued PPFA and several executives, claiming they fired her for objecting after management silenced an internal report showing PP officials paid white employees the most. PP allegedly fired her for pressing PP executives to act against discrimination and for objecting to retaliation against those who published the report.

2005: Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA) staffer Andrew Jones filed a lawsuit which alleged PPLA regularly allowed overt racism and sexism to infect its facilities, did nothing when one of its employees was called the N-word, and consistently portrayed Black males as being irresponsible. Sworn affidavits from female PPLA staff stated, “there was a sense that any employee who was not a white female was going to be carefully watched.” Additional “high level PPLA employees … were fired for whistle-blowing or complaining of racism.”

2004: Life News reported that a group of Black and Hispanic employees filed a federal lawsuit alleging that they were treated in a racist manner by officials at a southern California Planned Parenthood. One Black employee accused a PPLA official of referring to him using a racial slur.

1999: Texas Business Today detailed a lawsuit filed by Lamarilyn Fadeyi, an African American employee fired by PP in Lubbock. Fadeyi alleged she had been “unlawfully discriminated against during her tenure with Planned Parenthood,” stating that the “office director gave her and another African American worker an ‘application’ to join the Ku Klux Klan (which was supposed to be a joke).”

Planned Parenthood Admits Racism

Should Planned Parenthood be disqualified from taxpayer funding?

Planned Parenthood receives the majority of its taxpayer funding from two federal programs: Title X and Medicaid. Yet, these same programs bar recipients from acts of racism or discrimination.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees multiple agencies within the federal government (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Food and Drug Administration, Office of Civil Rights, Office of Population Affairs over Title X, and more), prohibits discrimination “based on sex,” “religion and religious conscience,” and “race, color, and national origin.”

HHS also requires recipients to remain “in compliance with federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age and, in some circumstances, religion, conscience, and sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy).” The Office of Population Affairs’ Title X handbook (2022, 2024) makes clear that recipients must “Provide services in a manner that does not discriminate against any client based on religion, race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics, number of pregnancies, or marital status. (42 CFR § 59.5(a)(4))”

Since 2000, PP has committed over 7.1 million abortions while receiving nearly $10.7 billion from taxpayers. Under 45 CFR 75.371, the federal government can withhold funds for any deficiencies they uncover — like racism. And in Planned Parenthood’s case, they should.