Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa took to Twitter on Monday to celebrate Juneteenth, calling it a time of “celebration and reflection.”
The organization said it is a great moment to educate ourselves and reach out to support those who the day is for.
It shared a graphic about the Emancipation Proclamation and how Juneteenth became a day worth celebrating.
It’s an interesting day to celebrate for an organization founded by a racist woman called Margaret Sanger. Sanger wrote in a Dec. 10, 1939 letter:
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” Sanger started “The Negro Project” with the goal of expanding birth control services for black communities in the south.
Planned Parenthood published a release just a couple of years ago addressing its “reckoning” with Sanger’s racism.
“The difficult truth is that Margaret Sanger’s racist alliances and belief in eugenics have caused irreparable damage to the health and lives of black people, indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants and many others,” they wrote. “Her alignment with the eugenics movement, rooted in white supremacy, is in direct opposition to our mission and belief that all people should have the right to determine their own future and decide, without coercion or judgement, whether and when to have children.”
Planned Parenthood wrote it acknowledges the harm done and must examine how they have perpetuated the harm.
Interestingly, the abortion rate for black women in America is almost five times that for white women. According to a 2015 report, black women make up 14 percent of the childbearing population yet obtained 36.2 percent of reported abortions. That report cited a study by Protecting Black Life that showed 79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of African and/or Hispanic communities.
