Hillary Clinton should explain praise of Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood and social Darwinism
Depiction of Sanger’s “quality not quantity” message 1918 images
A new article from Stream.org by author John West should find it’s way into the playbooks of Hillary Clinton critics as the former First Lady and Secretary of State should answer for acceptance of the Margaret Sanger Award and her praise of the lessons we should learn from the “supporter of eugenics who founded Planned Parenthood.”
Is Margaret Sanger the Rev. Wright for her campaign?
“Eugenics was the effort to breed a superior human race in the name of Darwinian biology. Its supporters (which included the nation’s top evolutionary biologists) were terrified that society was destroying itself because it was preventing natural selection from killing off the poor, the sick and the handicapped, and from thinning down the ‘inferior races,’ summarizes West.
In acceptance of the Sanger award, Clinton stated “I am really in awe of her, and there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from her life.”
Which lesson should be the first question?
Davis reviews the stances of Sanger, who warned of the “dangers inherent in the very idea of humanitarianism and altruism, dangers which have today produced their full harvest of human waste, of inequality and inefficiency.”
In Sanger’s view, humanitarianism threatened to swamp America with a tidal wave of the “feeble-minded.” As I explain in my book Darwin Day in America, feeblemindedness was an expansive category that included many people who today wouldn’t be considered mentally handicapped, including members of races (like blacks) considered by Darwinian biologists of the time to be “lower” on the evolutionary scale. “Feebleminded” persons could read. They could hold jobs. They could appear perfectly normal to everyone else. That’s why they were so dangerous according to eugenists. The feeble-minded could appear so ordinary that non-feebleminded persons might marry them and then spread their defective “germplasm” to the next generation.
Davis lists other concerns:
- Sanger branded the feeble-minded a “menace … to the race” and compared them to “weeds.”
- In her bestselling book The Pivot of Civilization, she wrote that “our eyes should be opened to the terrific cost to the community of this dead weight of human waste.”
- Sanger and other eugenists argued that the feeble-minded must be prevented through compulsory sterilization from reproducing themselves.
- She continued to publicly advocate a national sterilization policy, although she lamented that because of the Nazis “the word has acquired some unpleasant connotations which it does not deserve.”
At Vassar College in 1926, she spoke in apocalyptic terms about the ruinous costs to taxpayers of social spending to care for defectives, warning that “the American public is taxed, heavily taxed, to maintain an increasing race of morons, which threatens the very foundations of our civilization.”
The same year she presented her message to a branch of the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey. Her Klan talk was such a rousing success according to Sanger that afterward “a dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.”
Davis questions: “If you think Sanger’s views are completely out of sync with Planned Parenthood’s current leadership, consider the views of her grandson Alexander. Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council, Alexander Sanger champions abortion as a practice that evolved through Darwinian natural selection to help humans survive.”
“Humanity has evolved to take conscious control of reproduction and has done so in order to survive,” he declares. “… We cannot repeal the laws of natural selection. Nature does not let every life form survive. Humanity uniquely, and to its benefit, can exercise some dominion over this process.”
He concludes: “In other words, abortion allows us to eradicate some children so that other children might survive and the human species improve.”
Margaret Sanger cartoon — An illustration from Birth Control Review, 1918
[…] Read more at The Global Dispatch Related News House investigates Planned Parenthood, ADF ‘not one more penny should go to PP’ Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox and ADF Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek will be available for media interviews immediately following the first in a series of hearings examining the … READ MORE Dear Miss Tennessee, Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms A Miss America contestant at the pageant is drawing criticism for defending taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood. The contestant also claimed the abortion company offers … READ MORE Democrats Kathy Castor, Gene Green object to Planned Parenthood videos being shown during investigation A Congressional hearing got aggressive when Democrats objected to the GOP showing portions of the Center for Medical Progress’ (CMP) videos showing Planned Parenthood discussing the alleged sale of fetal … READ MORE Deleted Hillary Clinton emails could be recovered, report says The company that managed Hillary Clinton’s private email server when she was secretary of state says it has no knowledge that the server was “wiped”.Read more on NewsOK.comRead more on … READ MORE House chairman subpoenas uncut Planned Parenthood videos WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman of a House committee has issued a subpoena for an anti-abortion group's unedited videos about Planned Parenthood's provision of fetal tissue for research.The Center … READ MORE ADF files brief to make New Hampshire funding of Planned Parenthood records public Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a brief with the New Hampshire Supreme Court Wednesday to release all documents related to the state’s funding of abortion facilities and its continuing failure … READ MORE Office Depot refuses to print Planned Parenthood protest material over the word ‘prayer’ Thomas More Society has sent a demand letter to Office Depot, challenging the company’s refusal to print religious flyers for customer Maria Goldstein at its Schaumburg, IL location as discrimination … READ MORE South Carolina abortion clinics, including Columbia Planned Parenthood, cited with several violations Today, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) notified abortion clinics in South Carolina of enforcement actions following an investigation and inspections. “DHEC remains committed to ensuring that … READ MORE House investigates Planned Parenthood, ADF ‘not one more Dear Miss Tennessee, Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms Democrats Kathy Castor, Gene Green object to Planned Deleted Hillary Clinton emails could be recovered, report House chairman subpoenas uncut Planned Parenthood videos ADF files brief to make New Hampshire funding Office Depot refuses to print Planned Parenthood protest South Carolina abortion clinics, including Columbia Planned Parenthood, var hupso_services_c=new Array("twitter","facebook_like","facebook_send","google");var hupso_counters_lang = "en_GB";var hupso_image_folder_url = "";var hupso_url_c="";var hupso_title_c="Hillary Clinton should explain praise of Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood and social Darwinism"; […]