Founded by Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has a troubled past with eugenics. A policy of repressive regimes of the last century, eugenics seeks to address social problems posed by minorities and the poor by decreasing their populations. (See Rebecca Messall, “The Long Road of Eugenics: From Rockefeller to Roe v. Wade”, The Human Life Review, vol. xxx, no. 4 (Fall 2004): 33-74)   To this end, Planned Parenthood prides itself on providing access to abortion. In 2006, PPFA became the nation’s largest abortion provider, performing 264,943 abortion procedures. (See www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/Annual_report.pdf.)   This connection between eugenics and abortion services makes the location of PPFA’s new “super” facilities near minority populations disturbing.

But it is not only their agenda toward minorities but also their social engineering of sexual practices among young people that raises some serious questions.   The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) reports on a vast array of efforts through affiliated networks aimed at such social engineering. Voices for Planned Parenthood (Vox) pays interns to be available at a number of college campuses. In a white paper presented in 2001 by the Katherine Dexter McCormick Library, Planned Parenthood identified sexual abstinence programs as dangerous for teenagers. The organization charges that these programs do not provided “medically accurate information.” In this white paper, medical accuracy extends to not only information about contraception but also gender identity and sexual orientation. Medically accurate information, in fact, proposes a new sexual morality, a sexual morality that sees itself as opposed to that which is handed on through the traditional family. 

 In this vein, Ms. Jennifer Kraska of the Colorado Catholic Conference of Bishops exposed Planned Parenthood as “a supplier of graphic and explicit sex educational materials. These materials are being used in some of Colorado’s public schools.” (For example, see http://www.teenwire.com and www.all.org/newsroom_allreport.php)  Perhaps this is why the white paper boasts that the new morality it proposes increases the use of contraception by 22%.

Is there a relation between this attack on the traditional family and Planned Parenthood’s difficult past with eugenics? Both the attack on the family and on minorities reveal Planned Parenthood’s propensity to view the human person as a means to an end. Unlike mom and dad who are more likely to be concerned for the welfare of their sons and daughters, Planned Parenthood sees young people as their potential consumers. Modifying sexual behavior creates a better market environment for Planned Parenthood.

Charlotte Allen demonstrates in “Planned Parenthood’s Unseemly Empire; the billion dollar “non-profit”” (Weekly Standard, October 22) that more than one-third of all Planned Parenthood’s reported income from clinics, over $100 million in revenues, derive from abortion related services. Ms. Kraska explains, “Teens and young people are the primary customers for their services and information, which include the distribution of contraception, emergency contraception and chemical and surgical abortions.  Nationally 70 percent of Planned Parenthood's customers are under age 25 and 27 percent are under age 19.” These statistics suggest that commercial interests drive this non-profit organization.

            In Colorado, PPRM has enjoyed unmitigated success in achieving its goals. For example on the legislative front, Governor Bill Ritter has signed into law Senate Bill 60 and House Bill 1292.   The first law requires hospitals to provide information on emergency contraception for the victims of rape while the second requires schools to provide “science based” sex education. The problem with Senate Bill 60 is that emergency contraception can induce abortion rather than prevent pregnancy, and many hospital workers and institutions have moral reservations and patient safety concerns about the procedure, even in these extreme circumstances. (Indeed, Allen notes that six deaths are related to the morning after pill.) House Bill1292 usurps the role of local School Boards in deciding curricular content so that districts that may have provided abstinence based sexual education only are now directed by the state of Colorado to go in a different direction. What Colorado Law deems as “science based” is a euphemism for the same kind of content Planned Parenthood deems “medically accurate.” Adding to this, Governor Ritter has refused to apply for Title X, a federal grant that funds abstinence based sex education. 

            Despite these successes, PPFA knows that communities do not like the presence of their clinics. That is why they resist having their activities scrutinized in the public square. In Aurora, Il, near Chicago, Planned Parenthood tried to avoid public outcry by securing permits through the Gemini Development Office for its new 22,000-square-foot facility in March 2006 and delayed announcing its true intent to use the facility as a medical clinic in summer of 2007.   Public protests led by religious leaders as well as court actions delayed the opening of the clinic by a couple weeks.

In Colorado, PPRM informed The Denver Post of their intentions to conceal the Denver project from the public to avoid delays that other Planned Parenthood buildings have encountered. This project involves the construction of a new headquarters and clinic in northeast Denver on property they secretly purchased under the guise of Fuller 38 LLC. The general contractor, the Weitz Company LLC, is working to complete the new PPRM location at 7155 E. 38thAve. in northeast Denver by the summer of 2008. This will allow Colorado to enjoy the largest Planned Parenthood clinic in America just in time for the Democratic Convention. The large African American population in this part of town only affirms the observation of Day Gardner, the leader of the Black Pro-life movement, “The eugenic policies of the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, appear to be alive and well and still directed at black women” (see Racism, eugenics still fuel Planned Parenthood black pro-life leader charges, CNS Newswire report, Washington DC, March 1 [cited 3/2/2007]).

In response to these efforts and through a joint statement, Colorado Catholic bishops denounced “the negative impact of the actions and philosophy” of Planned Parenthood. They also urged, “the Catholic community and all people of good will to defend themselves and their beliefs against Planned Parenthood by every legal and ethical means at their disposal.”   

An even bigger clinic is coming to Houston. This facility will be equipped with an ambulatory surgical center, which is required by the Texas State Code to perform late-term abortions (see Texas Health and Safety Code, sec. 170.004). A six story building, formerly the sight of Sterling Bank, it boasts approximately 75,000 square feet. As such, it is roughly 20,000 square feet bigger than Denver and 50,000 square feet bigger than the one outside Chicago.  When completed, this will be the largest abortion clinic in the US and possibly in the world.  

As is the case outside of Chicago and in Denver, this location facilitates PPFA’s efforts through network organizations on college campuses and among minorities. The Promotora program and Voices for Planned Parenthood (Vox) have already made significant inroads into minority communities and institutions of higher education. (See www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/medical-sexual-health/promotoras-13399.htm , and http://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/take-political-action/youth-speak-out/groups.htm .) The super clinic is adjacent to the University of Houston – “The most ethnically diverse major research university in the United States.” (Seewww.uh.edu)   It is also down the street from Texas Southern University, serving a predominantly African American population (See www.tsu.edu). And it is within 3 miles of 5 other Universities and Colleges, including two campuses of Houston Community College, the fourth largest Community College in the US.  (see www.HCAD.org go to “real property” and type in Planned Parenthood). 

            Given that 70% of Planned Parenthood’s clients are college age or younger, these clinic locations are hardly surprising. What is disturbing is the renewed effort to provide late term abortions when there is an ethical consensus against such practices. Furthermore, access to these services is targeted to the large population of minority students in the area. Hopefully, religious leaders and community organizers will recognize that these unethical services are being offered by an organization with questionable ties to a notorious past. 

In a democratic society, this behavior may be legal, but like so many of Planned Parenthood’s activities, it is morally repugnant. Communities have a right to know who is moving into their neighborhoods and for what purpose. Given the atrocities perpetrated against minorities in the 20^th Century and echoing the call of the Colorado bishops, every responsible citizen should be very concerned whenever an organization whose purpose involves the destruction of human life executes its agenda through a strategy of secrecy. Planned Parenthood’s social agenda should certainly be exposed to the light of day.