Population Control (Part I)

There is one underlying common thread when it comes to the radical feminist movement for contraceptive and abortion rights: population control. Eugenics, contraception, and abortion: all these ideas were founded on the principle of population control hidden under the guise of women’s rights and women’s right to choose. What’s worse, the ideas and concepts put forth by radical feminists are discriminatory and intentionally target the poor and minorities. Margret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was not just a supporter of eugenics but she favored population control of the poor, African-Americans, diseased, feeble-minded, criminals, and any other person who is “undesirable”. The three Supreme Court cases leading to a right to privacy and contraceptive and abortion rights were influenced by population control: Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) and Roe v. Wade (1973). Griswold was a Planned Parenthood case. In Baird, William Baird was charged with a felony for distributing contraceptive foam after lectures on birth control and population control at Boston University. Below are some Margret Sanger quotes:

On blacks, immigrants and indigents:

"...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born." Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people.

On sterilization & racial purification:

Sanger believed that, for the purpose of racial "purification," couples should be rewarded who chose sterilization. Birth Control in America, The Career of Margaret Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a 1923 Sanger speech.

On the right of married couples to bear children:

Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her "Plan for Peace." Birth Control Review, April 1932

On the purpose of birth control:

The purpose in promoting birth control was "to create a race of thoroughbreds," she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)

On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:

"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control." Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12

On the extermination of blacks:

"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population," she said, "if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon

On respecting the rights of the mentally ill:

In her "Plan for Peace," Sanger outlined her strategy for eradication of those she deemed "feebleminded." Among the steps included in her evil scheme were immigration restrictions; compulsory sterilization; segregation to a lifetime of farm work; etc. Birth Control Review, April 1932, p. 107

On adultery:

A woman's physical satisfaction was more important than any marriage vow, Sanger believed. Birth Control in America, p. 11

On abortion:

"Criminal' abortions arise from a perverted sex relationship under the stress of economic necessity, and their greatest frequency is among married women." The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

Mary Ziegler’s article “Roe’s Race: The Supreme Court, Population Control, and Reproductive Justice” (2013) published in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism is a great article on the role of population control, race, and socio-economic status on abortion. Although I do not agree with her conclusions that race had no impact on the abortion movement and population control theories have been abandoned by the modern movement, her historical analysis is very good.

Ziegler on Planned Parenthood and crime in the 1940s: “Since 1947, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America ("Planned 47 Parenthood") had been an eager participant in the delinquency [criminal activity] debate. At a 1947 conference held by the organization, several speakers suggested that unwanted children were a prime cause of delinquency. Equating unplanned with unwanted children, Planned Parenthood speakers concluded that unplanned pregnancies led to bad mothering, as overburdened women could not financially or psychologically provide adequate care for their children.” To equate unplanned with unwanted is wrong. Many families consist of children that were the result of a surprise pregnancy and they are loved no less than their siblings.

Ziegler on Planned Parenthood, the poor, and race: “Some Planned Parenthood leaders sided with those who attributed delinquency to bad parents and the dysfunctional values held by the poor. In a 1962 letter to the editor of the New York Times, for example, Planned Parenthood leader Harriet Pilpel criticized a federal grant given to New Haven, Connecticut, a community known for its hostility to family planning. Pilpel asserted that two of the most important causes of delinquency were "overcrowded families and overburdened parents without sufficient means" and "unwanted children." As we have seen, Planned Parenthood's arguments could have troubling racial implications. The organization focused on unwanted children and pathological parenting in poor African American communities, suggesting that minority "culture" created the delinquency that the government sought to prevent.” Once again, these are Margaret Sanger and eugenic philosophies from decades earlier. These theories will comprise any reason to argue for the elimination the African-American race.