I am rarely at a loss for something to write about, especially when given prompts. Women in leadership roles, women in powerful positions, influential women, the list is endless. I scrubbed my kitchen floor because sometimes cleaning jogs an idea loose. I should have used my Swiffer because the whole manual hands and knees cleaning thing caused too many names to swirl around in my mind.

I decided to go back in history. I became stuck on Margaret Sanger. So many women in history have truly plowed the path for all of us. Unfortunately some have been given undeserved credit. I believe Margaret Sanger is one such woman. Her own written words, “The Pivot of Civilization” [Brentano’s press, NY, 1922] were too much for me to comprehend. Her words were frightening to say the least. This woman, the founder of Planned Parenthood, has been put on a pedestal by liberal women for generations, when by all accounts, Margaret Sanger was an extreme right wing lunatic.

She was born Irish Catholic. She was put through school by her older sisters. Margaret Sanger became an elitist who believed in eugenics. She became an atheist. According to the 11^th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, eugenics is the organic betterment of the race through wise application of the laws of heredity. You see in a democracy the majority rules and Sanger was terrified of the under-class outnumbering the elite. She was paranoid about “submitting to the dictates of those who never should have been born.” Margaret Stanger was a racist.

Before I go any further, I am without a doubt pro-choice. I firmly believe the government has no business telling anyone what they may or may not do with their own bodies. I am in fact shocked that for 30 years we have fought to keep our government off of our bodies and our rights to choose, only to turn around with the Health Care Bill and give them free reign.

Is it a coincidence that most Planned Parenthood Clinics are located in minority neighborhoods? According to their own statistics 42.9% of abortions are provided on minorities. That is three times more than on whites. Is it any coincidence that planned Parenthood publicly supports China’s brutal one-child policy which coerces or forces millions of women into having abortions? So much for reproductive freedom, it should go both ways, right?

Sanger and her eugenical colleagues opposed giving maternal care to poor women. She considered help to poor mothers, the worst form of charity. Planned Parenthood to this day does not offer maternal care. They provide birth control and abortions. I do not have a problem with that. I get a bit stuck on the fact that they provide abortions on minors and do not report sexual assaults. Most organizations receiving government funds have a mandatory as well as a moral right to report abuse of minors.

I also get stuck on the fact that this woman is heralded throughout history as the great savior of minority women when she must have deemed minority women too stupid to read her own words.

I just hate when history gets it wrong. I would love to see some brave new leadership at this organization as well as a complete overhaul of its practices and policies.