Planned Parenthood is finally removing the name of Margaret Sanger, its founder, from its Manhattan clinic — ending decades of denial about her horrid, racist views.
Just four years ago, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America did admit it was wrong of Sanger to speak to the Ku Klux Klan in 1926. And to support the sterilization of the disabled and “placing so-called illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes and dope fiends on farms and in open spaces as long as necessary for the strengthening and development of moral conduct.”
But it refused to confront her words such as: “The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”
It also downplayed her support for Buck v. Bell, the 1927 Supreme Court decision that declared constitutional the forced sterilization of the “unfit.” That ruling allowed the maiming via involuntary hysterectomy of thousands of black women in the Jim Crow South.
Planned Parenthood’s local branch says it’s also discussing replacing Sanger’s name on a street sign at Mott and Bleecker. The City Council shouldn’t wait for a request.