Brianna Barnes and Jacob Steeves reporters
Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. the PSU College Republicans watched “The 1916 Project,” put on by the White Rose Resistance and written by Seth Gruber, an author and speaker who is a leading voice of the pro-life movement.
The 1916 Project focused on the history of Planned Parenthood and the people and ideologies that led to it, with an emphasis on Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, which was founded in 1916. The documentary claimed that Sanger, Planned Parenthood, and the contemporary left have turned the country into a secular, immoral nation, and all the problems we have now can be traced back to Margaret Sanger. Sanger, according to her own words, as well as the words of her own birth control clinics, was opposed to abortion as a means of birth control and suggested that wide access to birth control would eliminate the reasons for abortions.
“We’re looking forward to learning about the history of Planned Parenthood and how Margaret Sanger was big on eugenics and we’re learning about how the Nazis and Hitler killed 6 million (Jewish people) and how we’ve killed 70 million babies with abortion since Roe v. Wade was decided,” said Zeke Spieker, president of PSU College Republicans club and a senior majoring in finance. According to NPR, approximately 20-25% of pregnancies ended in abortions prior to Roe v. Wade. “We’re just really looking forward to how Christians can engage in the culture and how churches can learn to engage in the pro-life side of the abortion issue,” said Spieker
In the documentary, it connects Sanger’s ideology, especially with eugenics – the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations to “improve” the populations’ genetic composition – to the ideals of Darwinism and Social Darwinism, ideologies that have been almost universally refuted and condemned in the century since their inception. Sanger was the founder and editor-in-chief of Birth Control Review, a magazine from 1917 and is considered to be, “the patron saint of feminism,” in the documentary, a title that is presented anecdotally in the film. Sanger has not been widely supported by feminists in recent years. In fact, according to the New York Times, in 2020, Planned Parenthood removed Sanger’s name from all of their facilities.
“I thought it was very informative. Even if you aren’t religious, it really opens your mind. I had no idea that what happened in Nazi Germany was connected in any way to Planned Parenthood. It was very sad about the things that I’ve heard and the movie, but I thought it was very good and I really hope it gets out there for people to watch it,” said Emily Whisenant, a freshman majoring in business management and minoring in communications and political science. According to Planned Parenthood’s report on misinformation about Maragret Sanger, the documentary exaggerates her connections to the Nazi party. The most linear connection drawn is the inclusion of a review of Lothrop Stoddard’s book, “The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy” in Sanger’s publication, “the Birth Control Review,” which does not necessarily stand as an endorsement of white supremacist ideals despite what the film suggests.
The documentary dove deep into the history and focused a lot on ideas of eugenics, racism and more when it comes to abortion and Sanger’s philosophy. The documentary presents a simplistic view of abortion and women’s health issues to support its claim that abortion has led to the, “fall of the United States as a Christian nation.” The claims also called sex education “pornographic,” however according to the Center for Disease Control, comprehensive sex education has reduced teen pregnancy, reduced the number of STI’s spread, and reduces the general number of sexual partners in a student’s lifetime. It ended with a strong call to action about spreading the claims the documentary presented.
“I loved the call to action at the end, where it really tied everything from the White Rose Resistance into today,” said Riley Siegenthaler, a freshman majoring in multimedia journalism.
Founded by Gruber, the White Rose Resistance, who sponsored this documentary, has a mission of educating people about the history behind abortion. The name was coined by the mission of Hans and Sophie Scholl, who condemned the Third Reich during the Holocaust. The foundation uses the name of this noble organization to perpetuate the idea that abortions are essentially a second holocaust.
“With the abortion clinic coming into town, I think abortion is a topic that’s going to be widely discussed on campus, and this will be a good chance for Republicans and for Christians to be educated,” said Spieker. “For them to know how to defend their full acquisition and to know what’s actually happening. So, I’m hoping that it is a good educational opportunity for anybody that agrees with me or doesn’t.”
This article was written and mostly edited by two journalists with opposing viewpoints on the topic. The pair both attended the event, watched the documentary, and were given time to do follow-up research on the topics. The collaboration and coming together between differing ideologies are important for topics such as this. Working with people of diverse backgrounds, views, and beliefs is an important value to the Collegio and a key component to personal growth, university education, and the human experience.