Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced Tuesday that it would remove the name of the national organization’s founder Margaret Sanger from its Manhattan clinic due to her “racist legacy” within the eugenics movement.
Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan location has been named the Margaret Sanger Health Center for years but now it will be renamed as Planned Parenthood of Greater New York also works with the city to rename the honorary street sign dubbed “Margaret Sanger Square” at the corner where the center is located, PPGNY said in a statement.
The decision comes as a result of
“a public commitment to reckon with its founder’s harmful connections to the eugenics movement,” the statement said.
“The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” said PPGNY board chair Karen Seltzer. “Margaret Sanger’s concerns and advocacy for reproductive health have been clearly documented, but so too has her racist legacy.”
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