Despite this year’s elections not getting much media attention, there are many issues at stake. As explained here, decisions made at the local and state levels have more impact on our daily lives than laws made in Washington. With all 140 seats in the General Assembly up for grabs, the election outcomes will help determine if we Virginians can have safe or crime-ridden communities, regain our car freedom or not, pay higher or lower taxes, protect female athletes or not, shield children from pornography in libraries or not, and lots more.
That said, recent tweets and statements from many Democrats running for the General Assembly indicate they seek to avoid most all other issues and place all their chips on one: abortion.
Seemingly taking orders from the same source by repeating the same talking points, they emphasize “abortion is on the ballot.” As part of their push, many tout their close alliance with abortion industry giant Planned Parenthood.
But were you aware of Planned Parenthood’s racist roots?
In the 1920s and 1930s, eugenics–which literally means “good birth”–was considered the cutting edge of science. According to dictionary.com, eugenics is:
“the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by people presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by people presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).”
We usually associate eugenics and ideas of “the master race” with twisted Nazi ideology, but it’s a little-known fact that in the years before Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, eugenics was widely-heralded in the US. Specifically, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was in fact an ardent supporter of eugenics and racism.
WARNING: The following quotes from Sanger are exceedingly racist, offensive, repulsive. However, in order to help inform you, a part of our reading community, about Planned Parenthood’s racist roots, the founder’s quotes are given in their full gore.
In a December 10, 1939 letter to a Dr. C.J. Gamble, Sanger wrote about what she called “The Negro Project of the South,” which her Birth Control Federation had begun that same year. For one thing, she wanted to work with black doctors which Sanger explained this way:
- “It seems to me from my experience where I have been in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas, that while the colored Negroes have great respect for white doctors they can get closer to their own members and more or less lay their cards on the table which means their ignorance, superstitions and doubts. They do not do this with the white people and if we can train the Negro doctor at the Clinic he can go among them with enthusiasm and with knowledge, which, I believe, will have far-reaching results among the colored people.”
Moreover, Sanger wanted to engage black pastors:
- “The ministers work is also important and also he should be trained, perhaps by the federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members” (emphasis mine).
A few other offensive lines from Sanger include the following:
- “Organized charity itself is the symptom of a malignant social disease…”
— Sanger, Margaret (1922). The Pivot of Civilization. - “My own position is that the Catholic doctrine is illogical, not in accord with science, and definitely against social welfare and race improvement.”
— Margaret Sanger, “The Pope’s Position on Birth Control,” Jan. 27, 1932. - “The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
— Woman and the New Race, Chapter 5, “The Wickedness of Creating Large Families.” (1920) - “I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan… I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak…In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.”
— Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography, published in 1938, p. 366
You can read these sickening quotations and many more here.
Yet here we are in 2023, and many Democrats running for state office still tout their Planned Parenthood ties. For example:
It’s all hands on deck for GOTV weekend and we’re joining @PPAVirginia for a canvass launch on Sunday, 11/5 at 11:30am for Senator Monty Mason! Come knock with us! 🚪
Can’t join at 11:30? We’re canvassing throughout the weekend! Check out all shifts here: https://t.co/PLXA3DIqa0 pic.twitter.com/2y4nKBkHwk
— REPRO Rising Virginia (@REPRORising_VA) November 1, 2023
In light of these messages, The Roanoke Star posed questions to three local Democrat leaders: Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea Sr., City Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd who is running for state Senate, and Lily Franklin who is running for House of Delegates.
- Do you have any personal statement about some of the racist and offensive quotations from Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger
- Do you have any statement about how many Democrat candidates for the General Assembly are making claims like “abortion is on the ballot” and touting their close alliance with Planned Parenthood on their Twitter posts, etc.?
Despite the blatant offensiveness of Sanger’s quotations, neither Lea, White-Boyd, not Franklin have responded.
This Twitter user has summed up what he sees as the 2023 Democrat platform:
Breaking: VA Democrats Election Playbook Has Been Released: pic.twitter.com/fKXsQLUu38
— I Know Where I Belong (@PACTstopcrt) October 22, 2023
–Scott Dreyer
