Washington State Pro-Lifers Hear Author Angela Franks.

Pro-lifers in the state of Washington graciously hosted author Angela Franks as she spoke on Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and on the organization's past history and present activities. Franks, author of Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Legacy, gave well-received presentations in three cities along Puget Sound (Seattle, Tacoma, and Stanwood) and one in eastern Washington (Walla Walla).

Franks's talk was entitled "Margaret Sanger and Eugenics: What is the Truth, and Why Should We Care?" She argued that Sanger was not only a eugenicist but also institutionalized eugenics within Planned Parenthood, an organization that traces its founding to 1916 when Sanger set up the first American birth-control clinic in the poor immigrant community of Brownsville, a Brooklyn district.

"Planned Parenthood and International Planned Parenthood have this eugenic ideology woven deep within their institutions," Franks told her audiences. These organizations "in fact advance the eugenic agenda, if often unconsciously." For example, she explained, "Planned Parenthood has never ceased to target the poor and disabled, Sanger's favorite examples of the so-called 'unfit.'"

Most of the talks were sponsored by local chapters of the Washington state affiliate of NRLC, Human Life of Washington. Franks expressed her admiration for the local pro-lifers she met.

"I met so many wonderful and energetic grass-roots activists, all eager to defend the most vulnerable among us," she told NRL News.

Clare Sislow, co-president of Walla Walla Human Life, was one of those activists. About 45 people attended a talk and book-signing at the historic Marcus Whitman hotel in downtown Walla Walla.

In addition, Myron Miller of Eastside Human Life was instrumental in organizing the talks in the Puget Sound area. Fr. Ed White brought together over 40 ...