U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush, R-Conn., right, is shown with Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Clare Booth Luce, a fellow Greenwich resident and the first woman appointed to a major U.S. ambassadorship, in Washington, D.C. 

Bush patriarch helped start Planned Parenthood

By Neil Vigdor

August 18, 2015

Nothing quite burnishes the pro-life credentials of Jeb Bush and his Republican rivals for president like promising to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

But the issue creates a paradox for the former Florida governor. His late grandfather, U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush — the patriarch of a political dynasty and patron saint of the GOP in Connecticut — was deeply involved in the formation of the women’s health care organization.

“I just think it’s ironic,” said Susan Bevan, national co-chair of the Republican Majority for Choice, a reproductive rights group. “George (Bush) 41 was pro-choice. Then when he became Reagan’s running mate, as all the Republicans do, they end up thinking they have to appeal to an extremist group of people. As you can imagine, it makes me crazy.”

Prescott Bush, a longtime U.S. senator from the Nutmeg State, was the agency’s first treasurer. His name even accompanied Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s atop the organization’s letterhead in a 1947 fundraising notice.

The correspondence, obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media from the LBJ Presidential Libraryin Austin, Texas, marked the inception of Planned Parenthood and set a $2 million fundraising goal.

“This means the ‘coming of age’ of our organization — made possible by the loyal interest and support of friends like you,” Sanger wrote in the letter, which became ammunition for Prescott Bush’s foes at the dawn of his political career.

The recent crusade against Planned Parenthood follows the release of a series of undercover videos by a right-wing, pro-life group showing the agency’s clinicians and executives discussing the procurement of aborted fetuses and tissue by medical researchers.

Jeb Bush’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the early role played in Planned Parenthood by his grandfather.

But pro-life groups weren’t shy when it comes to the reputation of Prescott Bush.

“He’s not held in high regard,” said Peter Wolfgang, president of the Family Institute of Connecticut. “Even George H.W. Bush is remembered as the man who put David Souter on the (U.S. Supreme Court) bench, who turned out to be bad news for the pro-life cause.”

Prescott Bush had an inauspicious start in politics for the blue-blooded investment banker from Greenwich. During his first run for the Senate in 1950, Bush was the subject of intense criticism for his ties to Planned Parenthood, putting him on the outs with Catholics in Connecticut. He lost the election to Democrat William Benton by less than 1,000 votes and had to wait two years for redemption.

“My father lost that election by a few hundred out of close to a million votes,” George H.W. Bush wrote in 1973 long before he was president. “Many political observers felt a sufficient number of voters were swayed by his alleged contacts with the birth controllers to cost him the election. The subject was taboo — not only because of religious opposition but because at that time a lot of people were unwilling to discuss in public what they considered a private matter.”

Onslaught on women’s health

Social conservatives, moderates and even some Democrats say Prescott Bush is far more representative of today’s Republican Party in Connecticut than Jeb Bush when it comes to abortion.

“The Republican Party in Connecticut has never had the same commitment to protect the rights of the unborn the way the national party has,” Wolfgang said. “Nobody expects any politician from Connecticut to be Rick Santorum or Henry Hyde.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who is up for re-election in 2016, differentiated between Republicans running for president and those in his home state.

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