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Planned Parenthood Targets Black Women With Message of Abortions Being 'Safe'

Supporters and patients of Planned Parenthood take part in a "Pink the Night Out" rally at City Hall, in Los Angeles, California on June 21, 2017. MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Supporters and patients of Planned Parenthood take part in a "Pink the Night Out" rally in Los Angeles, Ca. / Getty Images
November 1, 2017

Planned Parenthood tweeted on Tuesday about how it is safer for an African American woman to have an abortion than carry a fetus to term.

The country's largest abortion provider sent the tweet, apparently with the intention of getting into the "scary" Halloween spirit.  "If you're a Black woman in America, it's statistically safer to have an abortion than to carry a pregnancy to term or give birth #ScaryStats," Planned Parenthood Black Community tweeted.

Planned Parenthood's work in cities and with African American women has been criticized over the years, especially due to criticism levied against Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger. She has been called a "eugenics enthusiast" who, critics argue, saw Planned Parenthood as a way to control the population.

Some in the African American community have criticized Planned Parenthood's advocacy for abortion access in cities as being "black genocide."

Planned Parenthood and supporters have pushed back on the characterization of Sanger. They argue she may have supported some eugenicists' ideas, but her main argument for Planned Parenthood's services was not eugenics. Instead, they say her primary drive was that people should have the children they wanted.

Nevertheless, the backlash against Planned Parenthood on Twitter was swift.