{"id":266887,"date":"2022-04-30T11:46:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T16:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=266887"},"modified":"2024-09-20T16:17:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T21:17:06","slug":"abortion-controlling-certain-populations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-controlling-certain-populations\/","title":{"rendered":"Get the facts: Abortion has always been about controlling certain populations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The call for legalizing abortion in the United States was not due to women demanding it \u2014 the call came from eugenicist zealots pushing abortion as a population control solution.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a02009<\/a>\u00a0New York Times Magazine interview with now-deceased Supreme Court Justice\u00a0Ruth Bader Ginsberg<\/a>\u00a0suggested that\u00a0Roe<\/em>\u00a0was a\u00a0product of eugenic philosophy<\/a>\u00a0meant to limit certain populations. She shockingly acknowledged, \u201cI had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth, and particularly growth in populations that we don\u2019t want to have too many of.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1969,\u00a0Harriet Pilpel<\/a>, general counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union \u2014 and later, chairwoman of the Law Panel International of Planned Parenthood Federation, according to the New York Times\u00a0\u2014\u00a0published\u00a0The Right to Abortion,<\/a> in which she described abortion as \u201cthe most widespread\u2026 method of fertility control in the modern world,\u201d adding, \u201cIf we really want to cut our population growth rate on a voluntary basis, we should make abortion available on a voluntary basis, at least in the early stages of pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abortion enthusiasts were very concerned about population control, with some promoting coercive measures to control population growth. Among them were Alan F. Guttmacher,\u00a0the impetus behind Planned Parenthood’s\u00a0decision<\/a> to commit abortions,\u00a0and Lawrence (Larry) Lader, a former co-founder<\/a> of NARAL Pro-Choice America (known then as National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) who was dubbed<\/a> the \u201cfather of the abortion movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1969 New York Times article, \u201cDr. Guttmacher is the Evangelist of Birth Control,\u201d acknowledges<\/a> that many leaders sitting on Planned Parenthood\u2019s board were in favor of coercive measures of population control. The Times also noted that a \u201csizable\u201d number of Planned Parenthood\u2019s board was made up of \u201cpreponderantly white and well-to-do\u201d people, and quoted a Planned Parenthood board member who admitted that a racist attitude pervades the organization. He stated, \u201cWhat it all comes down to is that we want the poor to stop breeding while we retain our freedom to have large families. It\u2019s strictly a class point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1966<\/a>, Guttmacher compared the idea of overpopulation with the threat of nuclear war, telling the Washington Post that governments may need to take population control measures among families \u201cout of the voluntary category.\u201d But, while many openly espoused the use of coercion, Guttmacher also suggested “volunteerism” as a better strategy to the same end and claimed it was \u201cstrategically unwise<\/a>\u201d to promote coercion at that time. But he never ruled out coercive measures, instead indicating that if voluntary means did not bring population numbers down, some form of coercion<\/a> would become necessary.<\/p>\n

While Guttmacher and Margaret Sanger, both eugenicists, were concerned that overpopulation<\/a> was a threat, it was under Guttmacher\u2019s leadership that Planned Parenthood first voiced the idea of abortion as part of the ‘solution’ to this perceived problem.<\/p>\n

He said in a\u00a01970 interview<\/a>, \u201cIf we could get the abortion law liberalized, most of the 750,000 unwanted pregnancies would not lead to babies \u2013 rejected children, battered baby syndrome and illegal abortions.\u201d That same year, Guttmacher admitted to a Cornell Symposium<\/a>, \u201cThere is no question that the most effective way of reducing population growth is by unlimited abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alan F Guttmacher suggests unlimited abortion reduces population growth (Cedar Rapids Gazette April 7, 1970)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sue Ellen Browder points out in her book, “Subverted<\/a>,” that Larry Lader was also concerned about overpopulation. This was\u00a0attributed<\/a>\u00a0to the influence of Dixie Cup founder Hugh Moore, who called<\/a> overpopulation \u201cthe greatest threat to world peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lader was a biographer and admirer of Margaret Sanger. But while Sanger openly used eugenic terms, Lader was more subtle, claiming<\/a> that society should be responsible for the \u201cprotection of the child and its future.\u201d But Lader was really referring to the future of the elites, the perfect, and the mostly Caucasian \u2014\u00a0not to every<\/em> child.<\/p>\n

In 1966, Lader authored the book \u201cAbortion” in which he stressed, \u201cWe will only defeat ourselves by producing an endless cycle of unwanted children. Those born in slums, for example, denied even the smallest share of education and economic opportunity, have little chance of realizing their full potential as citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lader went on to quote Garrett Hardin, a leading eugenic ecologist who was a co-founder of NARAL<\/a> with Lader: \u201cWhen unwanted children become parents they are more likely than others to be poor parents themselves and breed another generation of unwanted children. This is a vicious cycle if there ever was one. It is ruinous to the social system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as a reasonable chance of contraceptive failure persists, however, abortion must be included as part of birth control to insure every child\u2019s becoming a wanted child,\u201d Lader wrote.<\/p>\n

“Every child a wanted child” eventually became\u00a0Planned Parenthood\u2019s motto<\/a>, a phrase likely\u00a0coined<\/a> by another eugenicist, Frederick Henry Osborn, who once wrote, “Birth control and abortion are turning out to be great eugenic advances of our time.”<\/p>\n

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This Every Child a Wanted Child Planned Parenthood poster is from 1977<\/p><\/div>\n

This false motto was also touted by Guttmacher in a 1968 interview<\/a> which\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0originated\u00a0from\u00a0WLBC-TV<\/a>\u00a0(see below) where he stated, “Planned Parenthood is relatively simple to define. It is a movement which tries to make each child a wanted child born into responsible parents. This is only possible if the parents plan their parenthood.”<\/p>\n

Guttmacher went on to address population increases. “Now, I think everyone is conscious of the fact that in some areas of the world there is explosive type of population increase, unsupportable, in that it is outdistancing food, it retards economic development\u2026 and, what we are attempting to do, of course, is to encourage countries to curtail the rate of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, “And I am encouraged because we have governments becoming deeply involved each year. One or more – many governments make population control part of national policy.”<\/p>\n