A new blogging series from Christianity Today examining evangelical responses to contraception is raising eyebrows for praising Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and for minimizing objections to birth control provisions in Obamacare.
“A woman’s desire for birth control is, even today, regarded suspiciously, as was seen in public discussions around the birth control provisions of the Affordable Care Act—as if women desiring birth control were promiscuous or lazy or selfish,” wrote author Rachel Marie Stone in a March 11 contribution.
In her article, “Contraception Saves Lives,” Stone celebrates Sanger as a pro-woman champion heralding chemical contraception as the best form of birth control for women in undeveloped regions. Stone overlooks the link between Sanger’s family planning strategies and racist eugenics views.
Chelsen Vicari, Director of IRD’s Evangelical Action program, commented:
“Caution to anyone who believes that Margaret Sanger’s establishment of Planned Parenthood was a righteous attempt to relieve underprivileged women. Sanger was driven by racism and eugenics.
“With aims for societal hegemony, Sanger started Planned Parenthood to regulate the births of minorities, or what Sanger called ‘benign imbeciles, who encourage the defective and diseased elements of humanity in their reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning.’ Not exactly the model female leadership Christian women should emulate.
“Secular feminists are increasingly sounding the alarm on hormonal contraception today, and Christians ought to be the most pro-women voices, proclaiming the truth about real health and abortifacient risks of hormonal contraception. But this article is a sad and shocking example of a Christian voice rewriting the past and promoting the use of toxic chemicals by the poorest and most vulnerable women in the name of charity.”
Vicari’s book Distortion: How the New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel and Damaging the Faith is published by Frontline.
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