Misleading: Planned Parenthood, Race, and Abortions
The Claim
Planned Parenthood is deliberately providing abortions to more black women than white.
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Emerging story
Entertainer-turned-politician Kanye West said recently that black Americans are “in genocide” because of an abortion culture that kills more than 1,000 black unborn babies each day. West further pointed out that Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, who believed in eugenics and set out “to kill the black race.” While those allegations are indeed supported by fact, the question is whether Planned Parenthood is still intentionally targeting the black race today.
The origin of this claim is embedded in the racist history of Planned Parenthood, which is accepted even by Planned Parenthood to be true. On July 24, 2020, Planned Parenthood released a statement confirming that its founder, Margaret Sanger, believed that “certain people — specifically people of color, people with low incomes, and people with disabilities — should be prevented from having children.”
Author and activist Candace Owens says the situation is no better today.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that statistics do hold up the claim that black women have a disproportionate amount of abortions. But is this genocide? Is this a deliberate killing of a particular race?
For that to be true, Planned Parenthood would still have to embrace its racist past. In its July 24, 2020, statement, Planned Parenthood made it very clear that it does not. In fact, it denounced its founder’s eugenic beliefs, calling them “repugnant’ and “directly counter to our organization’s current mission.”
So what does explain the high abortion rates in the black community? The answer is likely complex, but a commentary on BET’s website pointed out that black teenagers have higher pregnancy rates than their white counterparts — and would benefit most from better education about birth control.
The Wall Street Journal also weighed in in the debate, opining that high rates of abortion among black women and girls may be attributed to increasing socioeconomic levels, which translates into a tendency to be pro-choice.
Because of these factors, Planned Parenthood’s rejection of its eugenicist past, and correlation not meaning causation, we rate this claim as misleading.
