Who Was Margaret Sanger?

Hillary Clinton recently received Planned Parenthood's "most prestigious" award; the Margaret Sanger Award. Hillary Clinton had only praiseworthy words for the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. I'd like to analyze Clinton's acceptance speech in it's entirety in a later blog, but for this post I'd just like to highlight one of the quotes from Secretary of State Clinton.

"Now, I have to tell you that it was a great privilege when I was told that I would receive this award. I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision."

Clinton continues to praise Sanger in her acceptance speech, much to the pleasure of all those at Planned Parenthood who were in attendance. So who exactly is this Margaret Sanger person, and why is she so beloved by Clinton and those people at Planned Parenthood who named their "most prestigious" award the Margaret Sanger Award?

Margaret Sanger was born in the late 1800's to a poor Irish Catholic family, the 6th of 11 children. Her father rejected religious teachings and taught her to question everything. Her mother, who was a devout Catholic, was frequently pregnant and the young Margaret blamed too many pregnancies as the cause of her mother's poor health.

Her life experience led her to believe that pregnancy was the root of much of society's problems. She grew up in a large family that happened to be poor, and it greatly affected her. She thought that her work to promote birth control and finding ways to "help" women limit the number of children they had was a charitable mission. Maybe her intentions were not completely evil, but the effects have been devastating. Her ideas led to the eugenics movement. Nazi Germany’s racial policies and extermination of Jews and so-called “life not fit for life” were also influenced by the movement and the lead organization – the American Eugenics Society. She founded Planned Parenthood in 1916.

The mission for this organization was centered on population control and selective killing of innocent lives. "Family Planning" is not an accurate term to describe what Planned Parenthood has always promoted. Planning is something you do before taking an action. "Family Planning" is not actually planning anything at all. It is the action following a previous action. Often times the first action may not have been planned, but "taking care" of the first action is not a plan. Artificial contraception is not a plan, but an action that is contrary to the natural order of the human body. Natural birth control on the other hand can be considered family planning because it is not an action taken to prevent the natural order of the human body, but rather a mastering and understanding of the human body that will help families plan their future. Planned Parenthood was founded on principals contrary to Christian teaching and thought. The ideas of Margaret Sanger were intended (in her mind) to benefit society, but have had the exact opposite effect. Unfortunately, many of her ideas are widely accepted today and the culture of death appears to be gaining supporters.

Some quotes of Margaret Sanger illustrate her attitudes towards race and eugenics,

"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members" (Sanger's letter to Clarence J. Gamble, 1939, December)

Margaret Sanger referred to immigrants and Catholics as reckless breeders, writing in her book, Pivot of Civilization, "[They're] an unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all." (Sanger, p.187).

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it," Margaret Sanger wrote in her 1920 book Women and the New Race (Sanger, p. 63).

So who was Margaret Sanger? I think her words speak for themselves. She is not only the founder of Planned Parenthood, but also one of the founders of a culture of death. Margaret Sanger and those who support a culture of death see life as a burden. They think that killing innocent lives will improve the lives of others. Hitler also thought this way. I wonder if Hillary Clinton would be honored to accept an award named after Hitler? Something tells me she wouldn't be, but were the views of Sanger and Hitler really that much different? They both supported the killing of innocent human life for the "convenience" and "wellbeing" of society. They found death to be the answer to solve most problems. I could go into much further depth about Margaret Sanger's life and how she formed her ideas and opinions, but I'll leave that for another day. Like I said earlier, I think Margaret Sanger's words speak for themselves. If you support Planned Parenthood, ask yourself what do you like about the organization? Do you look up to and praise the work of Margaret Sanger or does her eugenic and racist attitude sicken you? Is this the kind of organization that you want to be associated with? I don't ask these questions to condemn, but hopefully to get you to seriously consider these issues. Does "reproductive rights" improve a society or damage a society? What does "reproductive rights" really mean? I will talk much more about Clinton's acceptance speech and her support of Planned Parenthood. There are several comments that she made that I want to analyze and I hope you all check back to see what I have to say. I think we can learn a lot by listening to opposing views and their rationale, and hopefully once we understand our enemies we will be able to learn how to convert them to accept the truth. The mission might seem impossible at times, but anything is possible with God. God bless!