The Unabridged Margaret Sanger

(Founder of Planned Parenthood.)

Below are some quotations by Margaret Sanger writing in the Birth Control Review, published over the period 1917-1940 by the American Birth Control League (ABCL), forerunner of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). This organization, founded by Sanger, currently operates the largest chain of abortion clinics in the United States, and has performed more than two million abortions since 1972.

Gloria Feldt, currently the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America has stated: "I can’t think of anyone who has made a greater contribution to the lives of women, children and families – of all races – than Margaret Sanger. You have to look at [her] life to see she had a desire to help the poor and the downtrodden of any race" (Phoenix Gazette, 12 September 1991).

Sanger on eugenics(The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.)

"Knowledge of birth control is essentially moral. Its general, though prudent, practice must lead to a higher individuality and ultimately to a cleaner race ..." (Margaret Sanger. "Morality and Birth Control." Birth Control Review, Volume II, Numbers 2 and 3 (February-March 1918), page 14.)

"Eugenics aims to secure better babies." (Margaret Sanger. "Medical Journalists Advocate Birth Control." Birth Control Review, Volume II, Number 10 (October 1918), page 4.)

"…we need not more of the fit, but fewer of the unfit….Is it not time to protect ourselves and our children and our children’s children? The propagation of the degenerate, the imbecile, the feeble-minded, should be prevented." (Margaret Sanger. "Birth Control) Past, Present and Future." Birth Control Review, Volume V, Number 8 (August 1921), page 19.)

"Today Eugenics is suggested by the most diverse minds as the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political, and social problems ... As an advocate of Birth Control, I wish to take advantage of the present opportunity to point out that the unbalance between the birth rate of the "unfit" and the "fit," admittedly the greatest present menace to the human race.…the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over fertility of the mentally and physically defective...Birth Control is not advanced as a panacea by which past and present evils of dysgenic breeding can be magically eliminated. Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupidly cruel sentimentalism." (Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, Volume V, Number 10 (October 1921), page 5.)

"Of course birth control itself is a eugenical measure. Birth control is no negative philosophy concerned solely with the number of children brought into this world. It is not merely a question of population. Primarily it is the instrument of liberation and of human development. Birth control for the individual, for the nation and for the world. We are fighting for the children of the present generation. We are fighting for the children, the women and the men of the next generation. We want a race of thoroughbreds." (Quotes from Margaret Sanger’s book Pivot of Civilization. Birth Control Review, Volume VI, Number 10 (October 1922), page 253.

This is the first in a series of quotes by Margaret Sanger on various topics.

To purchase a copy of Killer Angel :A biography of Planned Parenthood's Founder Margaret Sanger by George Grant E-mail the HLI bookstore hli@hli.org or call 1-800-549-LIFE.

Read more on the life issues from The Facts of Life. An Authoritative Guide to Life and Family Issues by Brian Clowes, PhD