Spring Break
Eugenics, Racism and Planned Parenthood Go Together
Rob Casapulla
Issue date: 3/17/08 Section: Commentary
Margaret Sanger was, ironically, the proverbial mother of Planned Parenthood. She stood as the honorary chairman at the organization's founding. In 1917 she was jailed for handing out contraception. After abandoning her husband and three children Sanger turned her attention to ensuring that those she saw as "unfit" were not allowed to procreate. Among those who were deemed unfit by Sanger were immigrants or as she put it "human weeds," whom she saw as lowering the nation's IQ and its strength. Sanger worried that the "increasing race of morons" who had already immigrated to America had damaged the United States significantly. Sanger was an all-out advocate of eugenics. She saw Jews and Italians as filling the insane asylums, the hospitals and other institutions for the feeble minded, as she once told the New York State Assembly. She went as far as to propose and advocate a five-year moratorium on birth in the United States. Sanger saw welfare as simply maintaining and perpetuating the undesirables that already existed in her society. She believed that taxpayers should not have to support the multiplication of the unfit and that government money should be reserved to be spend on "geniuses."
Today Sanger's tradition is carried on by those who push for abortion at any time and for any reason. With the increases in medical technology that allow birth defects and diseases to be diagnosed prenatally, Sanger's attempts to engineer a society purged of undesirables may just be close to reality. Sanger wanted to engineer society to purge it free from those who held it back.
Today, defenders of Sanger usually do one of two things. They either deny that she supported eugenics, in the face of countless publications, speeches and items of public record, or they dismiss her advocacy as a fad of the times. I'll bet you didn't know eugenics was the Ugg boots of the 1920s. Some however stand proudly by Sanger's side - former Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt announced that she did so and that she was proud to lead "the organization that carries on Sanger's legacy."
Today Sanger's tradition is carried on by those who push for abortion at any time and for any reason. With the increases in medical technology that allow birth defects and diseases to be diagnosed prenatally, Sanger's attempts to engineer a society purged of undesirables may just be close to reality. Sanger wanted to engineer society to purge it free from those who held it back.
Today, defenders of Sanger usually do one of two things. They either deny that she supported eugenics, in the face of countless publications, speeches and items of public record, or they dismiss her advocacy as a fad of the times. I'll bet you didn't know eugenics was the Ugg boots of the 1920s. Some however stand proudly by Sanger's side - former Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt announced that she did so and that she was proud to lead "the organization that carries on Sanger's legacy."
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 9
MsAndry
posted 3/17/08 @ 9:40 AM EST
It's Rob again.
When I see a young man so contentiously obsessed with women's reproduction, I can't help thinking mommy didn't love him "enough". (Continued…)
JoeMorgan
posted 3/17/08 @ 1:57 PM EST
From article:
"Eugenics, Racism and Planned Parenthood Go Together."
Remember, when the politically correct use the term racism, they simply mean white Gentiles who discriminate. (Continued…)
KH
posted 3/17/08 @ 11:08 PM EST
In the end, abortion is a choice. Planned parenthood isn't going out and making people have abortions, or even pushing them. It's a quick and easy thing to do to say "Hey, they're evil, racist bastards!", instead of seeing WHY the statistics fall the way they do. (Continued…)
Kim O'Brien
posted 3/17/08 @ 11:39 PM EST
As long as were going back to year 1917 how did the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks deal with women's rights, abortion, and the right's of oppressed nationalities? Women immediately had the right to vote and full particiation in economic and political life, and the right to a medical abortion. (Continued…)
Dean Clark
posted 8/23/09 @ 1:42 PM EST
Eugenics and racism is nothing new for Planned Parenthood.
jim
posted 9/11/09 @ 1:51 PM EST
Dr. Martin Luther King and Eb DuBois both supported planned parenthood. They provide health services to people who can't go to the private clinic for what they need. (Continued…)
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