Planned Parenthood Arizona serves more than 100,000 families every year; maybe your family is one of them.
Tucson is home to the Margaret Sanger Health Center, namesake of Planned Parenthood’s founder. A century ago, Margaret Sanger was a New York City nurse who witnessed the horrors of women dying prematurely after having too many children, while others died from botched abortions. This experience motivated her to become an activist for the availability and legality of contraception. Sanger was a controversial figure—and that controversy lingers to this day.
Sanger first visited Tucson in the 1930s, when she helped set up the Tucson Mother’s Health Clinic (also called Clinica Para las Madres), Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona’s precursor. Sanger, bedeviled by health problems, was drawn by Tucson’s climate. Her husband was drawn by Arizona’s lack of income tax, and in 1933, they purchased an adobe house in the foothills.
In the early ’40s, Sanger and her husband moved closer to the city’s heart, as gasoline rations dulled suburbia’s attractiveness. They moved into a house on Elm Street, just east of the Arizona Inn. Before his death, her husband obtained an empty lot on Sierra Vista Drive, a stone’s throw from their Elm Street residence. Sanger’s son Stuart built a house on one side, and Sanger decided to build her dream home on the other.
Sanger’s homes hosted lavish parties as well as fundraisers for organizations like Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona and the Tucson Medical Center (of which she was also a co-founder). She took up hobbies such as cooking and watercolor; today, many of her original paintings adorn the walls of Planned Parenthood administrative headquarters in Tucson, the building that was named in her honor.
Planned Parenthood, in Arizona and nationwide, is currently under attack. Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to do away with Title X, a national program providing preventive health care to low-income patients; the fate of Title X is now in the Senate’s hands. Since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed it into law, it has helped millions of women access services such as contraception, preventing an estimated 973,000 unintended pregnancies and 406,000 abortions every year.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), meanwhile, seeks to interfere with services covered by private insurance. By cutting off federal funds for insurance companies that cover abortions—even when the tax dollars aren’t put toward abortion coverage—his bill would deny women the legal right to an abortion, guaranteed by the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. It would also impose tax penalties on those whose insurance offers such coverage.
In Arizona, families are facing further potential threats as the Republican-controlled Legislature introduced several anti-women’s-health initiatives this year. HB 2384 would make Planned Parenthood newly ineligible for the Arizona Working Poor Tax Credit. HB 2416 would cause additional obstacles to abortion access, including changing the definition of “surgical abortion” to include abortion by pill, which could cut off rural women from abortion services. HB 2443 would infringe upon patient privacy by denying care to women who refuse to disclose the reasons behind their decision to abort.
A century ago, Margaret Sanger witnessed tragedies that resulted from unintended pregnancies. In response, she illegally smuggled diaphragms into the country and opened family-planning clinics in defiance of the law—and spent time in jail for her troubles. This is the world Sanger and other birth-control activists came from, and it’s the world lawmakers are trying to bring back.
Don’t stand for it. Talk to your friends; write to your representatives; vote; volunteer; and visit www.standwithplannedparenthood.org to show your support for Planned Parenthood’s crucial work.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.
“The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race
(Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)
Margaret Sanger (1883-1966)
On blacks, immigrants and indigents:
“…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ‘spawning… human beings who never should have been born.” Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people
On sterilization & racial purification:
Sanger believed that, for the purpose of racial “purification,” couples should be rewarded who chose sterilization. Birth Control in America, The Career of Margaret Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a 1923 Sanger speech.
On the right of married couples to bear children:
Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her “Plan for Peace.” Birth Control Review, April 1932
On the purpose of birth control:
The purpose in promoting birth control was “to create a race of thoroughbreds,” she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)
On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:
“More children from the fit, less from the unfit — that is the chief aim of birth control.” Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12
On the extermination of blacks:
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” she said, “if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon
On respecting the rights of the mentally ill:
In her “Plan for Peace,” Sanger outlined her strategy for eradication of those she deemed “feebleminded.” Among the steps included in her evil scheme were immigration restrictions; compulsory sterilization; segregation to a lifetime of farm work; etc. Birth Control Review, April 1932, p. 107
On adultery:
A woman’s physical satisfaction was more important than any marriage vow, Sanger believed. Birth Control in America, p. 11
On marital sex:
“The marriage bed is the most degenerating influence in the social order,” Sanger said. (p. 23) [Quite the opposite of God’s view on the matter: “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4)
On abortion:
“Criminal’ abortions arise from a perverted sex relationship under the stress of economic necessity, and their greatest frequency is among married women.” The Woman Rebel – No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.
On the YMCA and YWCA:
“…brothels of the Spirit and morgues of Freedom!”), The Woman Rebel – No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.
Planned parenthood is a wholly unnecessary and wrong intrusion into family privacy. My daughter (more than 10 years ago) had been indoctrinated without my knowledge and certainly without my consent that she could go to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Tucson to get birth control pills. At that time she was, I suppose, a sophomore or junior at Catalina High School. Her teenage goal in life was to capture her boy of her dreams, and she did everything she could. After a year or so (this story is derivable from eventual results) she became pregnant later – at 18 – told me about it and said she did not want an abortion. Not knowing the Planned Parenthood background of this (I’m not sure that knowing that part of the story would have changed any of my actions because I am one of these prolife people you Tucson Weekly readers snort at), but in any case, wanting to make as easy as possible the birth of my granddaughter, I assured my daughter that I would take care of all costs and problems, and that happened (by the way, 20 years later that little girl is a graduate RN). However, as it turned out, Daughter had enjoyed the Planned Parenthood Provided freedom, and had a few extra incidents. Turned out that the classmate she was trying to ‘trap’ was after tests not the father at all. And the on that was my granddaughter’s father wanted no part of a one time stand that went ‘bad’…
Anyway, there is something terribly wrong with our tax money, our high school facilities, and the school administrations allowing Planned Parenthood access with their ‘just do it, it’s ok, regardless of what your parents think’ attitude to the girls of this country at the peak of their blossoming hormones.
STOP THEM – IF CUTTING OFF FUNDING HELPS, MORE POWER TO THEM.
Thank god for Planned Parenthood. And thank god that sexually active teens, who are afraid to talk to their parents can get birth control if they need it.
I stand with Planned Parenthood because they are there for low income women like me. If it weren’t for Planned Parenthood, I wouldn’t be able to have an annual exam every year. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
More to the point, Christensen brings up a very important point – the current funding debates aren’t just about Planned Parenthood. When the government tries to tell PRIVATE insurance companies what kind of coverage they can and can’t offer, they have completely overstepped their bounds. What happened to the credo “the government with governs least governs best”? What if Congress were telling private insurance companies they couldn’t cover prostate exams or Viagra? Then we’d really have a hullabaloo on our hands.
And to chuckj, at least your daughter is making responsible choices to be on birth control so that she doesn’t get knocked up. Too bad there isn’t an open dialogue at your house that would make her feel comfortable discussing her choices with you.
Good article; thanks for supporting this invaluable organization.
Falsified or distorted quotes from Sanger are an old tactic in discrediting those who work for women’s health. The commenter above is just working in this tired tradition. For the real scoop on Sanger and her history in women’s health, try this:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPF…
Planned Parenthood is absolutely important! The doing away with resources for proper sexual education and health is not going to stop people from wanting and seeking abortions nor will it stop teenagers and others from having sex. What these attacks on Planned Parenthood amount to are attacks on those don’t have other options for sexual health care and resources. Planned Parenthood helps those who are most vulnerable, those kids whose parents DON’T talk to them, DON’T educate them. And who is left having to take care of these kids when they find themselves pregnant or with a disease. Usually not but the kid or the State. Frankly I would rather have my money got to keeping people safe and healthy rather then telling them lies that Abstinence is the one and only option.
I stand with Planned Parenthood all the way!!!
Title X funds are absolutely necessary to helping Planned Parenthood treat and counsel women who would otherwise be unable to afford their care. This is not about the moral rights or wrongs of being sexually active or even agreeing or disagreeing with abortion. This is about women who must have access to healthcare, counsel and contraceptives. When men have to go through the same hoops to get the same care, then we would probably see changes, and fast!!! Planned Parenthood also supports medically accurate sexuality education. It has been proven, the more information, the better the chance of the teenager or young adult making a responsible decision. The only decision is NOT abstinence, it is choosing to ask questions, use contraceptives and be responsible to yourself, your partner and your family. Planned Parenthood is not about do it because it feels good. It is about making informed choices. I stand with Planned Parenthood!!!
Marianne McIntyre
tips4health: I’ve seen that copied/pasted list of quotations all over the Internet. I don’t know how many of them Sanger actually said and which are falsified, but I do know that while she expressed some of those ideas, other quotations are disingenuously taken completely out of context to misrepresent her ideas (the one about the “Negro population” is a case in point). Besides, what she did or did not say has no bearing on the importance of Planned Parenthood’s services to millions of people over the decades. Even Planned Parenthood’s detractors know this, which is why they aren’t clamoring to drive TMC into the ground along with Planned Parenthood. Even IF she did have some reprehensible ideas — which is often in the nature of being a historical figure and coming from a completely different cultural context — I can never discount the important things she did for reproductive rights and sexual health. I mentioned Sanger in my article (1) to give historical context about a world before access to contraception and (2) because my fellow Tucsonans would be interested to know that a controversial historical figure spent the last few decades of her life right here.
chuckj: I’m sorry you had problems with your teenage daughter; however, her experience was not representative of the vast majority of people who go to Planned Parenthood for care. The evidence shows that the preventive services they offer reduce unintended pregnancies by a huge margin, and oral contraceptives have very high efficacy rate when they are used correctly. Evidence also shows that on the balance, sexually active people are going to be having sex no matter what, and in that case they must have access to contraceptives and latex barriers to prevent pregnancy and/or protect themselves from STIs. And despite your anger about your daughter going over your head, very valid arguments can be made in favor of allowing minors to have confidential access to Planned Parenthood’s services.
Questions for those outraged by the fact that Margaret Sanger may or may not have been a proponent of eugenics at the beginning of the Jim Crow era 20th century: Should we denounce our founding fathers because they owned slaves? Should we take a stand and remove them from our currency? And another great president, Teddy Roosevelt, spoke openly about the inferiority of other races and the need to occupy foreign countries in order to lead and “take care of” the infantile natives who lived there. How about Ford Motor Company? Henry Ford was a racist, devout anti-Semite, and another proponent of eugenics. Should we demand they change their name and denounce Ford? Should we boycott them? Did you know Prescott Bush’s Wall Street partner funded the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Springs Harbor? And what about Winston Churchill’s proposal that the poor and “otherwise unfit” be sterilized? Unfortunately this country has a history drenched in racism. Calling Sanger out and inferring Planned Parenthood is currently advancing the ideals of eugenics is a red herring – and you know that.
Great post, thank you.
I have issues with aspects of Margaret Sanger’s activism, and despite my gratitude for much of what she did, she is no personal heroine. That said, as others have noted, the list of quotes and paraphrasings provided by tips4heath contributes nothing to an informed discussion of this complicated historical figure. It distorts, misrepresents, and fabricates her positions, and the usage of it by opponents of reproductive rights is insulting fear mongering. I hope the poster will take the time to do some research and fact checking, whatever their ultimate feelings on Sanger or Planned Parenthood, if they were genuinely not aware of the fact that this oft-recycled collection should not be accepted at face value.
As to the gentleman who had an unfortunate experience with his daughter: I’m sorry you had to go through that, it must have been difficult for your family. That said, I don’t understand why your experience is evidence of why Planned Parenthood should be defunded–quite to the contrary! Are you blaming Planned Parenthood, which I believe you’re saying provided your daughter with birth control, for her pregnancy? Do you think that, were it not for this service, she would have remained celibate, even as all research shows that lack of access to contraception leads only to riskier sexual behavior? I’m genuinely confused as to what Planned Parenthood’s role is in your daughter’s desire to “trap” a boy or in the actual biological father’s unwillingness to take responsibility.
All this points to the necessity of Planned Parenthood’s services for teenagers, especially at a time when our schools have largely dropped the ball on accurate sex education. And friends of mine and I have turned to Planned Parenthood so many times as adults who cannot afford insurance and needed pap smears, STI testing, or other basic services that should be a human right.