Who was Margaret Sanger really? I always thought she was just an advocate for womens right to control how many children theyd have. She was more racist and sinister than I ever realized. The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger includes portions of a speech that Sanger gave on Aug. 5, 1926 at the Institute for Euthenics at Vassar College. It was also published in The Birth Control Review in October 1926. This speech, entitled “ The Function of Sterilization proposes how the practice can lead to “race betterment.” Sanger states, “The Question of race betterment is one of immediate concern, and I am glad to say that the United States Government has already taken certain certain steps to control the equality of our population through the drastic immigration laws. “There is a quota restriction by which only so many people from each country are allowed to enter our shores each month, she said. It is the latest method adopted by our government to solve the population problem. Most people are convinced that this policy is right, and agree that we should slow down on the number as well as the kind of immigrants coming here. “But while we close our gates to the co-called undesirables from other countries, we make no attempt to discourage or cut down the rapid multiplication of the unfit and undesirable at home.” In this speech Sanger said: “It now remains for the United States government to set a sensible example to the world by offering a bonus or a yearly pension to all obviously unfit parents who allow themselves to be sterilized by harmless and scientific means. In this way the moron and the diseased would have no posterity to inherit their unhappy condition. The number of the feeble-minded would decrease and a heavy burden would be lifted from the shoulders of the fit. Sanger goes on: “There is only one reply to a request for a higher birth rate among the intelligent, and that is to ask the government to first take off the burdens of the insane and feeble-minded from your backs. Sterilization for these is your remedy.”
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 19:33:03 +0000
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