Planned Parenthood CEO claims pro-life movement is 'completely consistent' with segregation
Planned Parenthood CEO claims pro-life movement is 'completely consistent' with segregationist movement on MSNBC's 'The ReidOut'
On Tuesday’s "The ReidOut," Planned Parenthood Director Alexis McGill Johnson criticized the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that suggested Roe v. Wade could be overturned.
MSNBC host Joy Reid said the pro-life movement was primarily founded and functions as a push for segregation.
Maria Peña holds a rosary and sign out outside a building housing an abortion provider in Dallas, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero) (AP Photo/LM Otero)
"And the reality is that this movement grew out of a deeply segregationist movement and then belatedly latched on to abortion because it was better PR, to be blunt," Reid said.
"What does it mean that the victims of this ruling are going to be disproportionately the very same people who were subject to segregation, Black and Brown folks, indigenous people, the people who have been beaten down over the course of the history that they no longer want us to learn?" she asked. "And they have completely failed to change anyone’s mind on abortion, almost anyone."
She said most religious groups polled do not support the Supreme Court majority that could vote to overturn the 1973 abortion case.
"This is a super minority position which is being imposed essentially by Christian nationalists, five Christian nationalists on the court," Reid added. "Does it hit you differently to know that this has grown out of this essentially segregation movement?"
"I think it’s completely consistent with the segregationist movement," Johnson answered.
Pro life demonstrators stand in front of the US Supreme Court building during the annual Right To Life March, Washington DC, January 22, 1988. (Photo by Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images) (Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Johnson explained that the pro-life policies are directly correlated to "disinvestment and disrespect" of minority groups.
"We have seen essentially the same states that refuse to expand access to Medicaid, states that have the harshest abortion restriction are also the same states with some of the most disturbing maternal mortality rates for Black communities, so we are looking at kind of a trend of disinvestment and disrespect of communities of color," Johnson said.
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She closed saying, "All the while what you see in this draft opinion, you see Justice Alito try to use the frame of ‘isn’t it great that Plessy vs. Ferguson was overruled at one point’ as a way to kind of gaslight us into believing they are actually civil rights heroes when in fact what they are doing is taking away a right that’s incredibly important for Black healthcare right now. It’s just preposterous."
Although Johnson made these claims, her organization has shown its own history of racism. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a supporter of the eugenics movement and was a featured guest of the Ku Klux Klan.
A sign is pictured at the entrance to a Planned Parenthood building in New York August 31, 2015. Picture taken August 31, 2015. To match Insight USA-PLANNEDPARENTHOOD/REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
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Johnson disavowed Sanger in 2021 and called to "examine" how Planned Parenthood "perpetuated her harms," but the organization has yet to elaborate how it would address Sanger’s influence.