You can run but you cannot hide

Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood





Today's Globe & Mail has an article by Jerred Stuffco entitled, "This Name Change is one mother of a battle" in which he notes that Planned Parenthood Canada is changing its name to the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health. Apparently three affiliates (Toronto, Windsor and Ottawa) will retain the Planned Parenthood moniker.

Now what word springs immediately to mind when read Planned Parenthood. If your answer is "abortion" you are not alone. Planned Parenthood is perhaps the leading exponent of abortion in the world. Yet Mr. Stuffco manages to write a half page article in the Globe without once using that word in connection with the organization's history, or purpose. He focuses on its early role in legalizing and disseminating birth control. It's quite a remarkable feat of journalistic legerdemain.

While Stuffco accurately indicates that Planned Parenthood of Toronto was founded in 1962 by Barbara and George Cadbury, he ignores Planned Parenthood's real parenthood. In the words of Dr. Alan Guttmacher, Planned Parenthood's President from 1962 to 1974, "We are merely walking down the path that Mrs. Sanger carved for us."

The broader Planned Parenthood organization was founded in 1942 in the United States when the American Birth Control League, founded by Margaret Sanger, merged with the eugenics movement to form Planned Parenthood. Sanger and her eugenicist colleagues wanted to prevent the "unfit" from propagating. The "unfit" included those folks liberals now call "people of colour,"as well as Eastern European Jews and Southern European Catholics.

For a good synopsis read Mike Perry's short article, The History of Planned Parenthood.