"Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt should follow the lead of Virginia's governor and apologize for her organization's eugenic
past," said Ed Szymkowiak, director of STOPP International, a project of American Life League. "Planned Parenthood founder
Margaret Sanger was at the forefront of the pre-World War II eugenics movement which forcibly sterilized tens of thousands of
Americans. Yet Planned Parenthood continues to honor her. Why?"
Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner released a written statement which said, in part, "Today I offer the commonwealth's sincere apology
for Virginia's participation in eugenics... The eugenics movement was a shameful effort in which state government never should have
been involved." Virginia forcibly sterilized about 8,000 people (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 5/2/02).
"Sanger's Birth Control Review was full of articles by Sanger and others advocating eugenics," said Szymkowiak. "In fact, in April
1933, it even republished an article from Germany by Dr. Ernst Rudin entitled 'Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need.' The
philosophies of Sanger and Hitler were very similar."
In "A Plan for Peace" (Birth Control Review, April 1932), Sanger included the following objective: "to apply a stern and rigid policy of
sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that
objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring."
"If Planned Parenthood no longer holds such views, it should formally apologize for what it did under Sanger's leadership and it
should quit giving out awards in her name," Szymkowiak said.
Release issued: 2 May 02
