MARGARET SANGER, Founder of Planned Parenthood

 

What was the philosophy of Margaret Sanger, the founder of abortion provider Planned Parenthood?

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is noted for her controversial attempts to introduce birth control and abortion, primarily to America's poor ethnic communties. Her emphasis was on the African-American community and other minorities in America. Although many debate whether her attempt to decrease family size was driven by her intent to help the poor or by racism, there is no doubt she was an advocate of Eugenics: the philosophy of improving the human race by supporting childbearing among people deemed to be socially and physically "desirable" while discouraging childbearing among those deemed "undesirable". She was an advocate of birth control methods including mandatory sterilizations and allowing "defective" newborns to die.

 

Eugenics, by its very nature, was an extremely prejudicial and oppressive philosophy:

 

1) Those with birth defects or predisposed to various diseases were singled out as "defectives" of society, through no fault of their own.

2) Poor communities were labeled as "defectives" simply for their lower financial status, through no fault of their own.

3) The uneducated class and those with mental handicaps were referred to as "feeble-minded", "morons", "imbeciles", and "mental defectives" by Sanger (ref: "The Pivot of Civilization", Chapter 4 titled, "The Fertility of the Feeble-minded", 1922) and were targeted for birth control, through no fault of their own.

4) Mandatory sterilizations for "unfit" individuals were justified for the sake of a better society.

5) Historically, minority groups have been targeted for racism and prejudice by the larger majority population. The eugenics movement was no different in this regard.

6) By no mere coincidence, eugenicists themselves always represented the larger, and socially and financially more prominent Caucasian groups.

 

Although eugenics was promoted by eugenicists as a bonafide "science" in the early 1900's, it never gained acceptance as a true scientific field of study on a broad scale by the general population due to its obvious prejudicial nature. Defining a "defective" trait was very subjective. Prone to erroneous personal prejudices, it should never have been construed as "scientific" by ANY thinking, fair-minded individual living in ANY time period or culture.

 

Those today that defend and excuse eugenicists such as Margaret Sanger based on the belief that eugenics was "the accepted science of the day" fail to understand our culpability in accepting any form of prejudice, regardless of its claims to be "scientific" or otherwise legitimate. Blind acceptance of a blatantly bigoted philosophy is hardly excusable. Any ill-spent effort at excusing Sanger's involvement in the eugenics movement demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the corruption, suffering, and devastation caused by such philosophies in human history. Thus, such efforts are better spent toward renouncing it in the first place.

 

Sanger later abandoned the eugenics movement, not because of its prejudicial or racist content, but for its conflict with her feminist philosophies (she believed reproductive rights should go to women first while the eugenics movement gave the state first priority). She never specifically renounced the prejudicial and racist aspects of the eugenics movement or her involvement in such a harmful activity, and neither has Planned Parenthood's modern administration.

 

In Her Own Words: Famous quotes from Margaret Sanger's letters, publications, and interviews:

"Every single case of inherited defect, every malformed child, every congenitally tainted human being brought into this world is of infinite importance to that poor individual; but it is of scarcely less importance to the rest of us and to all of our children who must pay in one way or another for these biological and racial mistakes” (Margaret Sanger, "Pivot of Civilization", 1922)

 

"The lower down in the scale of human development we go the less sexual control we find. It is said that the aboriginal Australian, the lowest known species of the human family, just a step higher than the chimpanzee in brain development, has so little sexual control that police authority alone prevents him from obtaining sexual satisfaction on the streets." (Margaret Sanger, "What Every Girl Should Know," December 29, 1912, Published article: New York Call, Dec. 29, 1912)

 

"I believe the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world that has disease from their parents that have no chance in this world to be a human being practically speaking, delinquents, prisoners, all sorts of things, just marked when they're born. That to me is the greatest sin that people can commit." (Margaret Sanger, Interview with Mike Wallace, 1957).

 

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." (Margaret Sanger, "Women and the New Race", Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923).

Although pro-choice advocates are quick to excuse this statement as one made in irony and quoted out of context, there is absolutely no excuse for uttering such words in ANY context. This callous comment begs the questions: "Merciful to whom?" And how does anyone accomplish placing the concepts of 'mercy' and 'killing an infant' in the same sentence? This statement was made by Sanger in regards to the high infant mortality rate among large families in the early 20th century. Her twisted concept of "mercy" is revealed here. On the contrary, true acts of mercy bring the necessary resources into a difficult situation to save lives (food, clothes, medication, etc.) rather than to destroy it.  

 

The following quotes merely accentuate her twisted concept of mercy:

 

In her opposition to Christian charity toward the poor, Margaret Sanger wrote:

"Let us not close our eyes to one of the greatest dangers inherent in such warm-hearted humanitarianism. For it is a curious but neglected fact that the very types which in all kindness should be obliterated from the human stock, have been permitted to reproduce themselves and to perpetuate their group, succored by the policy of indiscriminate charity of warm hearts uncontrolled by cool heads." (Margaret Sanger, “The Need of Birth Control in America,” Birth Control: Facts and Responsibilities, ed. Adolf Meyer, 1925)

 

"Organized charity is itself the symptom of a malignant social disease. Those vast complex, interrelated organizations aiming to control and to diminish the spread of misery and destitution and all the menacing evils that spring out of this sinisterly fertile soil, are the surest sign that our civilization has bred, is breeding and is perpetuating constantly increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents and dependents. My criticism therefore, is not directed at the ‘failure’ of philanthropy, but rather at its success." (Margaret Sanger, "The Pivot of Civilization", chapter titled "The Cruelty of Charity", 1922)

"Such philanthropy…encourages the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant." (Margaret Sanger, "The Pivot of Civilization", chapter titled "The Cruelty of Charity", 1922)

 

"There is but one practical and feasible program in handling the great problem of the feeble-minded. That is, as the best authorities are agreed, to prevent the birth of those who would transmit imbecility to their descendants." (Margaret Sanger, "The Pivot of Civilization," 1922).

 

"...apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring." (Margaret Sanger, "Woman and the New Race", Ch. 6: “The Wickedness of Creating Large Families.”, reprint 2010)

 

"The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies… and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit." (Ref: “Plan for Peace”, Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Review, April 1932, pp. 107-108, Article 1).

 

"Give dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization." (Ref: "America Needs a Code for Babies", Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Review, March 1934).

 

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race." (Ref: Birth Control Review, April 1932).

In a March, 1939 letter, Margaret Sanger wrote the following to Frank Boudreau, director of the Milbank Memorial Fund: "That is not asking or suggesting a cradle competition between the intelligent and the ignorant, but a drastic curtailment of the birth rate at the source of the unfit, the diseased and the incompetent . . . . The birth control clinics all over the country are doing their utmost to reach the lower strata of our population . . ." (Linda Gordon, "Woman's Body, Woman's Right", 1976).

 

The following excerpt is from: "America Needs a Code for Babies," Margaret Sanger, 27 March 1934.  Source: American Weekly, 27 Mar 1934. , Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress (LCM 128:0312B).

"Suppose, for purposes of discussion of something that may not prove to be practicable, we add the following clauses to the proposed Baby Code:

Article 3. A marriage license shall in itself give husband and wife only the right to a common household and not the right to parenthood.

Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit for parenthood.

Article 5. Permits for parenthood shall be issued upon application by city, county, or state authorities to married couples, providing they are financially able to support the expected child, have the qualifications needed for proper rearing of the child, have no transmissible diseases, and, on the woman’s part, no medical indication that maternity is likely to result in death or permanent injury to health.

Article 6. No permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth."

Sanger continues, "All that sounds highly revolutionary, and it might be impossible to put the scheme into practice. But for purposes of discussion let the clauses stand."

For further quotes by Margaret Sanger: "10-Eye-Opening Quotes From Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger", Lauren Enriquez, LifeNews.com, 3/11/13

 

Regarding the charge of racism, what do others say about Margaret Sanger?

"Margaret Sanger is responsible, more than anyone else, for keeping alive international racism. She played the attractive hostess for racist thinkers all over the world. Organizing the First World Population Conference in Geneva in 1926, she invited Clarence C. Little, Edward A. East, Henry Pratt Fairchild, and Raymond Pearl--all infamous racists."  (Elasah Drogin, 'Margaret Sanger, Father of Modern Society', New Hope KY: CUL Publications, 1980) 109.)

 

See Eternal Word Television Network (http://www.ewtn.com/library/prolife/ppracism.txt.

 

'Birth Control Review' was established, edited, and distributed by Margaret Sanger and was published from 1917 to 1940. Here is a comment about her publication:

 

"In 1932, it ['Birth Control Review'] outlined Margaret's 'Plan for Peace,' calling for coercive sterilization, mandatory segregation, and rehabilitative concentration camps for all 'disgenic stocks. In 1933, the 'Birth Control Review' published 'Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need' by Ernst Rudin, who was Hitler's director of genetic sterilization and a founder of the Nazi Society for Racial Hygiene. And later that same year, it published an article by Leon Whitney entitled, 'Selective Sterilization,' which adamantly praised and defended the Third Reich's racial programs."  (Elasah Drogin, 'Margaret Sanger, Father of Modern Society', New Hope KY: CUL Publications, 1980, 11.)

"Margaret Sanger is responsible, more than anyone else, for keeping alive international racism. She played the attractive hostess for racist thinkers all over the world. Organizing the First World Population Conference in Geneva in 1926, she invited Clarence C. Little, Edward A. East, Henry Pratt Fairchild, and Raymond Pearl - all infamous racists." (Elasah Drogin, "Margaret Sanger, Father of Modern Society", CUL Publications, 1980).

"In 1933, the 'Birth Control Review' published 'Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need' by Ernst Rudin, who was Hitler's director of genetic sterilization and a founder of the Nazi Society for Racial Hygiene. And later that same year, it published an article by Leon Whitney entitled, 'Selective Sterilization,' which adamantly praised and defended the Third Reich's racial programs." (Elasah Drogin, "Margaret Sanger, Father of Modern Society", CUL Publications, 1980)

 

Note: Margaret Sanger's prejudicial statements have NEVER been retracted nor repudiated by Planned Parenthood representatives at any time.

Does racism exist in the abortion industry today?

“Take the new influx of Hispanic immigrants. Their lack of respect for democracy and social order is frightening. I hope I can do something to stem that tide; I’d set up a clinic in Mexico for free if I could… When a sullen black woman of 17 or 18 can decide to have a baby and get welfare and food stamps and become a burden to all of us, it’s time to stop. In parts of South Los Angeles, having babies for welfare is the only industry these people have.”  (Ref:  Abortionist Dr. Edward Allred, founder of Family Planning Associates Medical Group, quoted in The San Diego Union, October 12, 1980)