LETTER: Planned Parenthood founder was a woman ahead of her time

It has been suggested Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, had a “warped belief system” that included the practice of eugenics [“Defends protesters,” Jan. 4, Peninsula Voices].

Margaret Sanger was jailed eight times under the Comstock Act for promoting sexual education considered salacious at the time.

With uncontrolled multiple births, subsistence became unbearable.

Ignorance of conceptions was rampant.

Diaphragms were illegal, and self-induced abortions often killed both mother and child.

High infant-mortality rates prevailed sans prenatal care.

It is important to note that Margaret Sanger deplored abortions, which is why she championed birth control to help women avoid the drastic measure.

In fact, no abortion referrals were made by Planned Parenthood during her lifetime.

While her extreme thoughts of eugenics are archaic, she decried eugenics employed by the Nazis through extermination.

Unfortunately, religious confirmation-bias shuns the good borne by Planned Parenthood, which 20 percent of women in the U.S. will visit at some point in their lives, according to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

Should you still believe Margaret Sanger had a warped belief system, think about the old woman who lived in a shoe: Had she known Margaret Sanger, she would have known what to do.

Roger B. Huntman,

Sequim