Margaret Sanger’s Ghost: Planned Parenthood Terminates More Black Lives Than Any Other Demographic

Timothy E. Parker

Guinness World Records Puzzle Master · Author · Data Analyst

Let me tell you about a woman. She believed certain human beings were weeds. That was her word, not mine. She built an institution to pull them out of the earth. Her name was Margaret Sanger. The institution she founded in 1916 is still operating today. It is still pulling. It is still funded by your tax dollars. It is still defended by the groups that claim to speak for you.

The institution is Planned Parenthood.

If you are Black in America, the statistics are staggering. They are relentless. Black women end pregnancies far more often than white women. If any other group produced these numbers, every civil rights leader would call it what it is. It is a targeted destruction of Black life.

But this destruction comes wrapped in the language of choice. It is funded by the political allies of the civil rights establishment. The money flows in the right direction. The endorsements follow the money. The silence is absolute.

And the silence is killing us.

The Founder’s Own Words

Margaret Sanger was not a closeted eugenicist. Eugenics is the belief you can breed “better” humans by controlling who reproduces. Sanger was a proud advocate of it.

She served on the board of the American Eugenics Society. She spoke at Ku Klux Klan rallies. She documents this in her autobiography. She wrote that she spoke to the women’s branch of the KKK in New Jersey. She said the visit was so successful she got a dozen more invitations (Sanger, An Autobiography, 1938).

Her magazine was The Birth Control Review. She edited it from 1917 to 1938. It regularly featured articles by prominent eugenicists. In 1921, she published her own article. She argued birth control was “the most constructive and necessary of the means to racial health” (Sanger, The Birth Control Review, October 1921).

In 1932, she published her “Plan for Peace.” It called for the segregation and sterilization of those she deemed “unfit.” This included the “illiterate” and the “paupers” (Sanger, “A Plan for Peace,” The Birth Control Review, April 1932).

In her 1922 book The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger wrote about the “menace” of the “unfit” reproducing. She called for the elimination of “human weeds.” She called for an end to charity. She said it let the “defective and diseased” breed. She wanted a rigid policy of sterilization and segregation.

“Those least fit to carry on the race are increasing most rapidly. Funds that should be used to raise the standard of our civilization are diverted to the maintenance of those who should never have been born.” — Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization (1922), Chapter 8

The Negro Project

In 1939, Sanger launched “The Negro Project.” It was a campaign to bring birth control to Southern Black communities. The project’s stated goal was to reduce the Black birth rate.

Sanger wanted Black ministers involved for strategy. She needed a Black face for a white agenda. In a 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, she wrote a haunting sentence.

“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.” — Margaret Sanger, letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, December 10, 1939 (Margaret Sanger Papers, Smith College)

Planned Parenthood’s defenders try to recontextualize this sentence. They say Sanger was worried about misperception. Read the letter yourself. It is in the Smith College archives. Read the full Negro Project proposal. It describes Black people as a population that “breeds carelessly and disastrously.”

One thing is not debatable. The Negro Project was designed to reduce the number of Black children born in America. That was its purpose. That was its funding justification. That was its goal. The institution that grew from it is still operating. It is still in the same communities. It is still producing the same result. The scale is now far larger than Sanger dreamed.

The Modern Numbers

The Centers for Disease Control publishes annual abortion data. The numbers are not ambiguous. They are the most damning evidence against any institution in the Black community today.

Black women have abortions at 3.5 times the rate of white women (CDC, Abortion Surveillance, 2021). Black women account for about 33 percent of all U.S. abortions. Black Americans are about 13 percent of the total population.

This means abortion ends more Black lives than heart disease, cancer, accidents, HIV, and murder combined.

In New York City, the numbers cross a terrible line. City health reports show that in recent years, more Black babies were aborted than were born alive. In 2018, there were 25,889 Black non-Hispanic live births. There were 23,116 Black non-Hispanic abortions (NYC DOHMH, Vital Statistics 2018). For every 1,000 Black babies born alive, about 893 were aborted.

Read those numbers again. Let them settle.

In America’s most progressive city, the Black termination rate is nearly one for one. For every Black child who draws breath, another does not. The institution behind this is celebrated as a guardian of freedom.

The Geography of Targeting

In 2012, the Protecting Black Life initiative mapped Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities. Their finding was clear. 79 percent of these facilities are within walking distance of African American or Hispanic neighborhoods (Protecting Black Life / Studnicki et al., 2020).

Consider what this means.

• If a fast-food chain placed 79% of its locations in minority neighborhoods, public health advocates would call it predatory.
• If a payday lender concentrated its offices at this rate, the NAACP would demand an investigation.
• If a tobacco company targeted Black neighborhoods this way, the Congressional Black Caucus would hold hearings.
• But when the institution is Planned Parenthood, the response is not investigation. It is endorsement.

Why? Follow the money.

The Funding and the Silence

Planned Parenthood’s political groups contribute millions each election cycle. In the 2020 cycle alone, spending exceeded $45 million. Virtually all of it went to Democratic candidates and progressive groups (OpenSecrets, 2020).

The financial system is simple.

• Planned Parenthood funds the politicians.
• The politicians fund Planned Parenthood. The group gets over $600 million yearly in government funds, mostly through Medicaid.
• The civil rights groups endorse the politicians.
• The politicians protect Planned Parenthood from scrutiny.

The circle closes. It is seamless. It is lubricated by money. It is insulated by endorsements. It is defended by an establishment. Their loyalty to donors exceeds their loyalty to the community they claim to represent.

Every major civil rights group in America defends Planned Parenthood. The NAACP does. The National Urban League does. The Congressional Black Caucus does. Not one has publicly asked the question the data demands. Why does this institution enjoy their protection?

The Voices That Will Not Be Silenced

Not everyone has accepted the silence. Dr. Alveda King is the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She has spent decades speaking against what she calls “the great deception.” She argues her uncle’s vision of justice is incompatible with an institution that eliminates Black children far more often.

She points out that Planned Parenthood gave Martin Luther King Jr. the “Margaret Sanger Award” in 1966. Planned Parenthood uses this to claim his endorsement. But King never spoke publicly in support of abortion. His wife, Coretta Scott King, accepted the award for his work on family planning broadly (King, A. C., Testimony, 2011).

The late Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson was the first Black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She fought Planned Parenthood for decades. She served as president of the National Right to Life Committee. She argued the targeting of Black communities with abortion was the continuation of eugenics by other means.

These voices exist. They are documented. They are credentialed. They are ignored. Their arguments threaten the financial and political system that benefits from the silence.

The Question That Must Be Asked

Since abortion was legalized in 1973, an estimated 20 million Black pregnancies have been terminated (Guttmacher Institute; CDC, 1973–2020).

Twenty million. The entire Black population of the United States in 1960 was 18.9 million.

The abortion industry has eliminated more Black lives than the total Black population at the dawn of the civil rights movement.

Every leader who defends the status quo must answer this question. If Margaret Sanger saw the current numbers, would she be horrified or satisfied?

Read her writings. Read the Negro Project proposal. Read the letter to Clarence Gamble. Read the plan for peace. Read about weeds and the unfit. Then look at the numbers. Look at the CDC data, the New York City data, the mapping data, the funding.

Ask yourself whether what is happening is an accident or a fulfillment.

The Puzzle and the Solution

A puzzle master looks at that question. They identify the variable that sustains the arrangement. It is not ideology. It is not healthcare access. It is not choice. It is money. Planned Parenthood spends $45 million per election cycle funding the political allies of civil rights groups. Those allies fund Planned Parenthood with $600 million in annual government money. The civil rights groups endorse those allies. The circle is closed. The variable is financial dependency.

Top 5 Solutions That Are Already Working

1. Facing History and Ourselves (Nationwide and International). This civic education program uses history to teach critical thinking. It has trained more than 10,000 teachers. They reach over 500,000 students. Two controlled trials showed positive effects on student reasoning. A study of 346 eighth graders showed reduced racist attitudes. 86% of alumni registered to vote. That rate is higher than their peers. The program teaches the full truth of how institutions exploited vulnerable populations. Students learn to identify when it happens again. (Facing History and Ourselves; Institute of Education Sciences)

2. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (Nationwide, 600+ Health Centers). Planned Parenthood itself has begun a public reckoning with its founder’s legacy. It serves more than 2 million patients yearly. Sanger’s work led to the legalization of birth control. However, the organization has now publicly denounced Sanger’s racism and eugenics beliefs. It removed her name from its Manhattan health center in 2020. It created a framework for how institutions can reckon with problematic founders. Whether this reckoning is enough is the central question this article raises. (Planned Parenthood; Population Reference Bureau)

3. Nurse-Family Partnership (40+ States). In this program, registered nurses visit low-income first-time mothers. Visits run from pregnancy through the child’s second birthday. The results are extraordinary. There is a 48% reduction in child abuse and neglect. There are 18% fewer preterm births. Infant deaths drop by 45.4%. TANF dependency falls by 5.6%. The program costs $4,500 per family per year. For Black mothers facing pressure, it provides concrete, professional support. It addresses the material conditions behind decisions. (Olds et al., Pediatrics, 2014; Evidence-Based Programs, 2023)

4. AVANCE Parent-Child Education (Texas, California, New Mexico). AVANCE is a two-generation program. It offers parenting education, early childhood development, and adult literacy. The program lasts nine months and is free. Results show 80% of families increased parent-child interactions. 88% of children who completed the program met state reading standards. The district-wide rate is 73%. The program directly strengthens the families that high termination rates are reducing. It operates on a principle. The answer to reproductive pressure is material support, education, and community. (IDRA, 2005; AVANCE Dallas Impact Report, 2022-2023)

5. Harlem Children’s Zone (Central Harlem, New York City). This is a cradle-to-career pipeline covering over 100 blocks in Harlem. It has Baby College parenting workshops. It has Promise Academy charter schools. It has health programs and a College Success Office. Nearly 100% of Promise Academy seniors get accepted to college. The program has closed the Black-white achievement gap in math. President Obama modeled a $210 million federal grant program on its design. In a city with a near one-for-one Black termination rate, it proves a point. Investing in Black children from birth changes the path of entire communities. (Dobbie & Fryer, American Economic Journal, 2011; HCZ Annual Reports)

The Bottom Line

The numbers tell a story. No political endorsement can override it.

• 3.5 times — Black women end pregnancies compared to white women (CDC, 2021).
• 33% vs. 13% — Black share of all U.S. abortions vs. Black share of the population.
• 893 per 1,000 — Black abortions per live births in New York City (NYC DOHMH, 2018).
• 79% — Planned Parenthood surgical facilities near minority neighborhoods (Studnicki et al., 2020).
• About 20 million — estimated Black pregnancies terminated since 1973. This exceeds the entire Black population at the dawn of the civil rights movement.

Margaret Sanger called certain populations weeds. She built an institution to pull them. She launched the Negro Project to reduce the Black birth rate. She spoke at KKK rallies. She published plans for sterilizing the “unfit.” The institution she built now ends more Black pregnancies than any other group. It operates mostly in minority neighborhoods. It is funded by the political allies of every major civil rights group in America.

The question is not whether this outcome matches the founder’s intent. The question is whether the groups that claim to protect Black life will keep endorsing it. Or whether, at last, the silence will break.