What’s true
Margaret Sanger — who opened the first U.S. birth-control clinic and helped found what later became Planned Parenthood — did engage with the eugenics movement, which was a widely accepted but now discredited early-20th-century ideology focused on “improving” human populations. Planned Parenthood itself acknowledges this aspect of her history and denounces those beliefs today.
What’s misleading or false
Planned Parenthood was not originally established strictly as a eugenics organization. Sanger’s primary documented goal was expanding access to birth control; she sometimes used eugenics language common at the time to appeal to some supporters, but this was not the sole or defining mission. Historians note that Sanger’s activism centered on women’s autonomy and family planning, not solely on eliminating certain populations.
There’s no credible evidence that Sanger explicitly aimed to “breed out” the poor as a primary purpose of her work; rather she argued that access to contraception should be available so people — including poor people — could choose how many children to have.
2) Claim: Sanger started “the Negro Project” to “breed out the Black race”
Context
The Negro Project was a birth control awareness initiative in the late 1930s aimed at increasing access to contraception in the rural South. Its explicit stated purpose was educational outreach and access to reproductive health services — not racial extermination or “breeding out” a race.
Additional nuance
The project was taken out of Sanger’s hands once funded and was not a large or lasting program.
Some critics have pointed to language in Sanger’s writings that reflects biased views (common in that period), but there’s no credible historical record that she formally advocated for genocide, and many historians emphasize that she supported reproductive choice — even for marginalized communities.
3) Claim: Planned Parenthood “only does abortions” and exists solely to end pregnancies
What’s false
Planned Parenthood provides a range of reproductive and health services — not only or even primarily abortions. According to multiple analyses of the organization’s reports:
Abortions account for about 3% of all clinical services provided.
The majority of services include STD testing and treatment, contraception, cancer screenings (Pap tests, breast exams), pregnancy testing, referrals, and other preventive care.
What’s true but needs context
More than a small percentage of clients may receive abortio
