Marketing the Pro-Choice Agenda: Planned Parenthood and the Nonprofitization of Reproductive Rights in the United States Open Access

Abstract

As one of the most well-known nonprofit organizations in the United States, Planned Parenthood occupies a constitutive place in the American sociopolitical imaginary. This paper critically examines Planned Parenthood’s history and current position within the reproductive rights world in order to understand why this organization, like all other nonprofits, is limited in its ability to catalyze significant social change. I illustrate this point by providing an overview of scholarship about nonprofits and charitable contributions, performing an analysis of Planned Parenthood’s historical eras, and analyzing Planned Parenthood’s virtual marketing materials. I argue that, despite Planned Parenthood’s remarkable success, the organization’s outsized social and political influence and dominant status as a nonprofit organization fundamentally limits the progress of reproductive rights in the twenty-first century. In order to conceptualize an equitable future, the relationship of nonprofit organizations to social change must be reconfigured in order to prioritize people over professionalization, problem-solving over bureaucracy, and creative thinking over profits.

Table of Contents

Introduction

……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 1

Chapter One: The Repressive Functions of Nonprofit Organizations

……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 9

Chapter Two: Planned Parenthood’s Shifting Ideology

……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 27

Chapter Three: Virtual Content as a Branding Tool

……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 45

Conclusion

……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 61

References

……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 67

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	American Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	American Studies
Keyword	philanthropy planned parenthood reproductive rights donation social change nonprofit american studies nonprofit industrial complex interdisciplinary studies reproductive justice marketing
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Kim Loudermilk, Emory University
Committee Members	Mary Frederickson, Emory University Robyn Fivush, Emory University Deric Shannon, Emory University

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