--- title: Conservatives Attack Bust of Planned Parenthood Founder description: Conservative groups are calling on the National Portrait Gallery to remove of a bust of Margaret Sanger from the Washington, D.C. museum. canonical: https://time.com/4013069/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-national-portrait-gallery/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-27T16:25:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T02:18:22.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Conservatives Want Bust of Planned Parenthood Founder Removed From Museum og:description: A bust of Margaret Sanger in the National Portrait Gallery has drawn controversy og:url: https://time.com/4013069/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-national-portrait-gallery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e75c957d917b38e/69885ca13c1639e1ab459011/planned-parenthood2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: The Planned Parenthood logo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Conservatives Want Bust of Planned Parenthood Founder Removed From Museum twitter:description: A bust of Margaret Sanger in the National Portrait Gallery has drawn controversy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e75c957d917b38e/69885ca13c1639e1ab459011/planned-parenthood2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Conservatives Want Bust of Planned Parenthood Founder Removed From National Portrait Gallery > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 14, 2023 2:18 AM UTCPublished: Aug 27, 2015 4:25 PM UTC  The Planned Parenthood logo is pictured outside a clinic in Boston, June 27, 2014. The Planned Parenthood logo is pictured outside a clinic in Boston, June 27, 2014. Dominick Reuter—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 14, 2023 2:18 AM UTCPublished: Aug 27, 2015 4:25 PM UTC A bust at a Smithsonian museum is [the latest target](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/26/planned-parenthood-founder-bust/32442699/) in a heated back and forth between conservatives and Planned Parenthood. Conservative groups are calling on the National Portrait Gallery to remove of a bust of Margaret Sanger from the Washington, D.C. museum, the Associated Press reports. Sanger, who died in 1966, founded two groups that eventually became Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has been harshly criticized by conservatives following the release of [a series of undercover videos](http://time.com/3976736/hillary-clinton-planned-parenthood-video/) that show employees of the healthcare organization negotiating the sale of fetal tissue. However, a [group of ministers](http://cns7prod.s3.amazonaws.com/attachments/ministers%5Fletter%5Fall%5Fariel%5Faddr%5Fadded.pdf) lead by former Republican politician [E.W. Jackson](https://www.facebook.com/jacksonforlg/info?tab=page%5Finfo) and the conservative non-profit [ForAmerica](https://www.foramerica.org/about/) say their opposition to the bust is based on Sanger’s support of eugenics, a social movement that sought to remove undesirable traits from the gene pool through sterilization and selective breeding. Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica, told the AP that Sanger believed eugenics could be used to “sterilize out of existence the poor, the blacks.” Republican politicians have echoed these claims. Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas have written a letter to lawmakers that calls the sculpture’s display by the museum “an affront both to basic human decency and the very meaning of justice.” In a statement to TIME, Planned Parenthood acknowledged Sanger’s flaws, but dismissed the attacks as motivated by anti-abortion sentiment. “This is a group with a longstanding political agenda to ban abortion,” said spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood. “There is no doubt that Margaret Sanger made some controversial, harmful statements that Planned Parenthood does not uphold. What we do know is that her fight for birth control access for all women — and her partnership with leaders like W.E.B. DuBois, Mary McLeod Bethune and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell — has helped millions of women and people to this day.” Officials at the National Portrait Gallery say they won’t remove the bust, which has been on display since 2010\. A spokesperson for the gallery told the AP that the museum’s displays include some people with “less than admirable characteristics.” Sanger’s bust is included in the museum’s [“Struggle for Justice” exhibit](http://npg.si.edu/exhibit/exhstruggles.html), which highlights Americans who fought for the civil rights of disenfranchised or marginalized groups. This is not the first time Planned Parenthood has had to defend Sanger. A [2004 fact sheet published by the group](https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/8013/9611/6937/Opposition%5FClaims%5FAbout%5FMargaret%5FSanger.pdf) comes to the activist’s defense, while also separating the organization from some of her more antiquated beliefs. The fact sheet says that criticizing the family planning movement based on Sanger’s support for eugenics is like rejecting the _Declaration of Independence_ because “it’s author, Thomas Jefferson, bought and sold slaves.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4013069/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-national-portrait-gallery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4013069/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-national-portrait-gallery/"},"headline":"Conservatives Want Bust of Planned Parenthood Founder Removed From National Portrait Gallery","datePublished":"2015-08-27T16:25:22.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T02:18:22.000Z","description":"The controversy centers around her support for eugenics","url":"https://time.com/4013069/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-national-portrait-gallery/","keywords":["republicans","Health Care","Smithsonian","ted cruz","Planned Parenthood"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e75c957d917b38e/69885ca13c1639e1ab459011/planned-parenthood2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e75c957d917b38e/69885ca13c1639e1ab459011/planned-parenthood2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Planned Parenthood logo","caption":"The Planned Parenthood logo","creditText":"Dominick Reuter—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republicans/","name":"republicans"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4013069/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-national-portrait-gallery/","name":"Conservatives Want Bust of Planned Parenthood Founder Removed From National Portrait Gallery"}}]}] ```