The documentary Maafa 21 continues to make headlines and draw attention to the eugenic roots of the notorious, yet taxpayer-funded, Planned Parenthood. Yesterday's New York Times surprisingly spotlighted the issue, writing that black leaders are pushing for the group's defunding as more and more learn of PP's origination:
Scholars acknowledge that Sanger did ally herself with eugenics, at the time a mainstream movement, but said she believed that birth control, sterilization and abortion should be voluntary and not based on race. She was also allied with black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and Dr. King, who praised her efforts to bring birth control to black families.
“It’s unfair to characterize those efforts as racially targeted in a negative way,” said Ellen Chesler, a historian and Sanger biographer, who is now on the board of Planned Parenthood.
