Planned Parenthood

Margaret Sanger: eugenist, feminist, racist, and founder of Planned Parenthood

I originally wrote this piece for a campus newspaper about three years ago, hence all of the Notre Dame references, but I think it still pertains. Just thought that I would re-post it, since Planned Parenthood is still a formiddable force, and the battle for Notre Dame still continues.


Sex. From MTV to Hollywood, from books to magazines, relationships and human sexuality dominate today’s culture. In fact, they are a part of human nature and have dominated every civilization in the past as well. All one has to do is to look in the Bible, or in the Greek epics to see teachings and attitudes about sex.

Recently, many events at this university have sparked people’s dialogue and discussion on the topic. Last year, controversy surrounded the performance of the “Vagina Monologues” on Ash Wednesday on this campus. (Various groups are once again scheduling to perform this offensive show on campus this year). Recently, two topics of the new “Theology on Tap” series held at Legends on Wednesday nights have been “Relationships” and “How Far is Too Far?” A short time ago, during National Respect Life Week, the Notre Dame/Saint Mary’s Right to Life club displayed a Cemetery for the Innocents on South Quad. This display graphically showed the sheer reality of the three thousand and six hundred children killed in abortion every day in the United States. In fact, 43,350,000 babies have been surgically aborted in the past thirty years. This is one third of our generation. A reason for widespread abortion our society is due to the support it receives from prominent organizations that are intent on promoting a cultural mentality aimed at eliminating the poor and the minorities in the name of “woman’s choice.”

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), contrary to popular belief, is the nation’s single largest abortion provider. This is not surprising however, when one looks at the origins of this evil organization. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist, a eugenist, and like Hitler, she was on a quest to create a perfect human race.

Margaret Higgins Sanger was born the sixth of eleven children into a large Irish family. Her mother died of tuberculosis at the age of fifty. Margaret blamed her mother’s death on the large number of pregnancies that her mother underwent. Later in her life, Margaret married and became the mother of three children that, according to her own writings, she should have killed. “The most merciful thing that the large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it” (Woman and the New Race, 1920).

While she was studying to become a nurse, a career path that she never finished, she came to the conclusion that there are two parts to the human race, “fit” and “unfit.”

Free maternity care to the poor will encourage the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of the unthinkable and indiscriminate fecundity of others…a dead and human waste. (Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, p. 177). [Emphasis added.]

The attentive reader would notice that Sanger seems to place herself in the “normal” sector of society, even though she came from a poor peasant family. The same reader cannot help but feel sorry for Sanger, who must “shoulder the burden” of the “unfit” people, clearly the “human waste” of society (the same people in which Blessed Mother Teresa saw the face of Christ).

In 1920, Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League (ABCL). To promote this organization, she used such ingenious slogans as, “Birth Control: To Create a Race of Thoroughbreds” (“Birth Control Review,” November, 1921, vol. V, no. 11; p. 2). This slogan surely attracted a large following!

In 1930, Sanger changed the name of the ABCL to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This organization promoted, held to, and taught Sanger’s philosophy of the human race, which she developed in 1932 in a work entitled “Plan for Peace.” She presented seven points and methods that she believed would bring about communal peace and create a unified and “fit” human race. Among these points were ideas to close immigration to aliens who were “feebleminded” and “idiots.” She also promoted a policy of sterilization and segregation to those whose traits might be deficient. Apportioning land to segregated persons under “competent instructors” was another on of her brilliant ideas to create the perfect human race. (See the sidebar for her complete policies).

According to Sanger, anybody who promotes sterilization and segregation should be seen as a hero. In fact, the Planned Parenthood website publishes a quote that praises her efforts, “There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger’s early efforts…Our sure beginning in the struggle for equality through nonviolent direct action may not have been so resolute without the tradition established by Margaret Sanger and people like her” (www.plannedparenthood.org/about/thisispp/sanger.html, October 27, 2003).
Surely, abortion is a direct action. The “nonviolent” aspect of it might be questioned however, when a human body is either ripped or crushed apart by the surgical forceps of the abortionist. Clearly, Sanger established a great tradition in which sterilization, racism, eugenics, contraception, and abortion should be promoted.

Not only did Sanger believe in the inferiority of the lower classes, as is clearly evident in her prior quotes, but she was also a racist. In the April 1933 issue of the “Birth Control Review,” Sanger stated that, “blacks, soldiers, and Jews are a menace to the race.” Knowing how unpopular her beliefs were, however, she stated that, “We do not want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro Population” (Letter to Clarence J. Gamble, M.D., December 10, 1939).

Planned Parenthood clearly follows its founder’s principles, even today. As much as the organization would like to be seen as a benevolent organization dedicated to women’s care, it is a covert operation that is dedicated to genocide and racial and economic cleansing. Planned Parenthood tries to conceal Sanger’s real views and to justify them through “historical context,” yet to see the truth, all one has to do is read her books, Woman and the New Race or Pivot of Civilization, (which are available online at http://www.all.org/stopp/sanger.htm) to see for herself what kind of “benevolence” Sanger advocated.

Clearly, Margaret Sanger, the “heroic” champion of “women’s rights,” was not such a gallant figure after all. She was a hypocritical racist who was intent on purifying society and building a culture of “fit” people who would dominate the poor and the social outcasts. Perhaps what is even more disturbing is that the American taxpayer, whether or not he wants to support racism and murder, does so. The PPFA received $240.9 million in taxpayer money last year (http://www.all.org/stopp.htm, October 27th, 2003).

Isn’t it time that we start to stand up to face this behemoth? People are dying because of the dark agenda of Planned Parenthood. Isn’t it time that young people start to take a stand for their faith and their beliefs? We will not stand for racism, death, and social or economic discrimination. As Blessed Pier Giorgio Frasati, the patron of young people, stated so wisely not too long ago, “To live without faith, without a heritage to defend, without battling constantly for truth, is not to live, but to ‘get along;’ we must never just ‘get along.’” Aren’t we the Fightin’ Irish? Perhaps we should ask ourselves how this heritage applies to our lives, other than just football. Surely, the “Fightin” refers to more than just a game of football.Let us, “that American youth always so ready and eager to throw themselves wholeheartedly into every worth and noble venture and for whom obstacles are but a challenge to their courage, may [we] seize the torch of faith and carry it full-flaming to the ends of the earth until all men may see and know Jesus Christ!” These words from Pope Pius XII can certainly direct us today. Attend events like Theology on Tap. Become active in promoting a culture of life. The opportunities at Our Lady’s University are endless. It is time that faithful Christians unite and stand against the Planned Parenthoods of our society.