Angela Franks

As you may recall, in one of our previous meetings we discussed the possibility of having a speaker in to discuss the history of Planned Parenthood--in particular--its historic involvement with the eugenics movement. During our meeting I could not remember the name of the author who had written a recent work on this topic. I finally tracked it down and her name is Angela Franks and her book is "Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Legacy: The Control of Female Fertility".

I talked to Angela today and I think she would make an excellent speaker on the topic of Planned Parenthood because she is very academic and she's a stickler for accuracy. For a two-hour talk she would charge $800, plus expenses. She lives in Morgantown and would be flying out of the Pittsburgh airport. She'd need about $200 to take a shuttle between Morgantown and Pittsburgh, airfare (probably around $600) and two nights accomodation because it is a stretch to get back and forth in one day if she is going speaking in the evening, and it's hard to get here in time for an evening talk if she doesn't leave until the morning of the talk (plus, she's pregnant with her third child, so let's give the poor woman a break!)

Angela also could give a talk to our group for an extra $300 to provide information about Planned Parenthood's history and what they are doing at the moment that would be a little more informal. We can discuss this more at our meeting tonight.

The timing on this would probably be best at the end of October because she's finishing off her PhD at the beginning of October, "may" be traveling out of the country in November, and is due to deliver in January of next year.

There are other people who could speak on this topic but I believe that Angela Frank's commitment to accuracy makes her the best choice. If we have someone speak on this topic they have to be completely accurate or we will be doing more harm than good. Angela's reputation is untarnished in this regard.

Let's discuss this more at the meeting!