Idaho Planned Parenthood agreed to racist donation

[bjorkfan]

Planned Parenthood of Idaho is taking (justifiable) heat after an employee agreed to take a donation aimed at aborting black fetuses.

The call to Idaho came in July to Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho.
On the recording provided by The Advocate, an actor portraying a donor said he wanted his money used to eliminate black unborn children because "the less black kids out there the better."

Kersey laughed nervously and said: "Understandable, understandable. ... Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out."


You can read the whole exchange here and listen to it here; it was part of an anti-choice effort to "catch" abortion providers taking funds from obviously racist donors.

What so awful about this, in addition to Kersey's horrifying response on the call, is that this plays directly into anti-choice talking points about abortion and race.

more: http://feministing.com/archives/008697.html

[Iris]

1. omg. This makes me sick

wtf? Who is this Kersey person? "laughed nervously and said: 'Understandable, understandable...'"

[uppityperson]

4. Direct link to transcript, on right side of page.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/308723.html

At first she is fine:

Kersey: Absolutely. If you wanted to designate that you wanted your gift to be used to help (an) African-American woman in need, then we would certainly make sure that that gift was earmarked specifically for that purpose.

No problem with specifying whom. But then, she should've seen she was being baited. Or else she agrees and is a racist jerk. Edited to add that after reading the whole story at my link, I'd go with racist jerk:

Donor: Great. Because I really face trouble with affirmative action, and I don't want my kids being disadvantaged, you know, against black kids. I just had a baby; I want to put it in his name, you know.

Kersey: Mmhmm, absolutely.

Donor: So that's definitely possible.

Kersey: Oh, always, always.

Donor: So I just wanna - can I put this in the name of my son?

Kersey: Absolutely.

Donor: Yeah, he's trying to get into colleges, and he's going to be applying, you know, he's justwe're just really bighe's really faced troubles with affirmative action. (more @ link)

[Magnifica]

2. Not good

this has to be investigated.

[Xardoni]

3. racism is alive and kicking

disgusting.

[bjorkfan]

5. There's a similar child molestation setup....

This is not coming from the same people, but a different anti-PP organization that tapes phone calls. The voice actress pretends to be a girl several years below the legal age of consent, say 12 or 13. She says that she thinks she is pregnant and slips out that her boyfriend is an adult male in his 20's, an illegal sexual relationship. The actress then gets the PP person on tape trying to arrange an abortion appointment without getting the "boyfriend" arrested, seemingly hiding sexual abuse of a child. And the tapes of this setup are all over YouTube.

[tigereye]

10. they've been pretending with that kind of stuff for years, unfortunately

pretending someone is underage, etc. It's a terrible case of "gotcha" :(

[JayLo]

6. Why is this a surprise?

I assume all of you have heard of Margaret Sanger and her American Birth Control League, the predecessor of PP. This is the stuff on which PP was founded. Appalling as the donation may be, why is it a surprise that they accepted it?

[uppityperson]

7. What is your stance on access to abortion?

Welcome to Du, please tell us more about you and your beliefs.

Are you saying PP was founded on racism? Please clarify as I'd like to be sure rather than assuming. Thank you.

[JayLo]

8. Racism was only one facet in PP’s founding

What I was saying is that one of PP's primary founders (Margaret Sanger) was an advocate of eugenics and birth control as it applied to groups of people she deemed less than desirable (dysgenic groups). Racism was but one subset of her larger motivation for population control. Since this is PP’s heritage, why then is it news that they would accept a donation given with racist intentions?

As for me, I am a liberal in the classic sense of the word.

[uppityperson]

9. It has to do with Fundamentalism and upcoming election

Yes, PP had a racist person employed with them. I hope she is no longer employed there, and those who hired her or supported her are also gone. PP provides many needed services, and doesn't need assholes working for them. Anyone working there, or similar groups, should have training in dealing with set up jobs like this one.

I didn't know that about Margaret Sanger, and a quick search shows people saying that she did and she didn't promote eugenics.

However, it is now 90 yrs later from her first clinic, and the only reason this is news (rather than an internal PP issue) is because of the Fundamentalism, the outspoken anti-choice group, and the upcoming election.

Edited to add, what does "I am a liberal in the classic sense of the word." mean as far as stance on abortion access?

[WildClarySage]

11. I believe it means

he is no longer with us. Poor disruptor. :cry: boo fricking hoo

[uppityperson]

12. Thank you.

To mix metaphors, giving them rope sometimes help weed out the bridge dwellers.