Way back when, long before his own views about abortion had been misstated and re-clarified, Herman Cain made this provocative statement about the highly questionable origins of abortion giant Planned Parenthood:

“I absolutely would defund Planned Parenthood — not because I don’t believe in planning parenthood, [but because] Planned Parenthood as an organization is an absolute farce on the American people. People who know the history of Margaret Sanger, who started Planned Parenthood, they know that the intention was not to help young women who get pregnant to plan their parenthood. No — it was a sham to be able to kill black babies.”

Remember that? It was a refreshingly bold reminder that PP founder Sanger was a shameless fan of eugenics and that Planned Parenthood — at least once upon a time — disproportionately targeted minority communities.

This Sunday, in his appearance on Face the Nation, Cain stood by his earlier critique:

“I still stand by that. If people go back and look at the history and look at Margaret Sanger’s own words, that’s exactly where that came from. What I’m saying is, Planned Parenthood isn’t sincere about wanting to try to counsel them not to have abortions.”

Naturally, Planned Parenthood is none too happy about Cain reopening the door to its ugly past. The director of African American media for the organization’s Action Fund (its lobby arm) was quick to reply to Cain’s Sunday appearance with firm language and the substantiating evidence of a study from a less-than-neutral research institute.

“It is simply unacceptable for those who oppose legal abortion to use inflammatory and divisive language based on race to push an ideological agenda,” Veronica Byrd said in a statement. “Herman Cain is wrong on the facts and clearly out of the mainstream in his attack on Planned Parenthood.”

She also cited a study that suggests fewer than 10 percent of Planned Parenthood facilities are in primarily black neighborhoods. But, as LifeNews.com points out, that study came from the Guttmacher Institute, which has extensive ties to the abortion industry. Other research suggests the percentage of minority-targeted clinics is far higher.