Margaret Sanger Said What?
A Complex Legacy of Birth Control, Eugenics, and Sexual Liberation
I joined the Socialist Party, Local Number Five itself, something of a rebel in the ranks, which, against the wishes of the central authority, had been responsible for bringing Bill Haywood East after his release from prison. The members—Italian, Jewish, Russian, German, Spanish, a pretty good mixture —used the rooms over a neighborhood shop as a meeting place and there they were to be found every evening reading and discussing politics.
Margaret Sanger1
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Foreword
This essay takes a historical look at the life of Margaret Sanger. Its purpose is not to get involved in the current debates on abortion or contraception, as one side of the argument has overwhelming negative and dark forces behind it. While resistance might seem futile, the goal is to show how the post-modern world rejects Natural Law. This essay hopes that the good readers of Frederick R. Smith Speakes will share this essay to open the minds of those willing to see how the world accepts anti-good in the name of “social justice.”
The essay, resulting from decades of reading, study, and reflection, took many taxing days to write such disturbing content. The author anticipates receiving hate mail or worse.
Introductory Summary
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) emerged from a childhood marked by contrasting influences. Her mother had a hidden devotion to Catholicism, and her father was skeptical of organized religion. Sanger navigated these opposing forces. Her father was Michael Higgins, a stonemason with socialist beliefs. He instilled in her a spirit of non-conformity, and her mother’s Catholicism remained subdued under his influence.
These early experiences shaped Sanger’s later advocacy for birth control. She observed large families’ struggles, contrasted with smaller ones’ comfort. Sanger associated contraception with economic stability and personal freedom. Despite her secret exposure to Catholicism, Margaret felt estranged from religion. That occurred due to her father’s influence, and this feeling fueled her later activism.
Sanger’s journey led her to nursing and midwifery. There, she saw the tragic results of unsafe abortions. This experience led her to embrace radical politics and free-love ideas. They propelled her into the birth control movement. Sanger faced marital struggles and society’s backlash. She advocated for contraception, and her linked fervor with eugenics never waned. That reflects troubling connections to proponents of racial hygiene. Planned Parenthood has honored her with its Margaret Sanger Award. Her complex beliefs and associations raise questions about her true impact and legacy.
Margaret Sanger: a Short Biography
Margaret Higgins Sanger Slee, born Margaret Louise Higgins on September 14, 1879, was an American nurse, writer, sex educator, and birth control activist. She grew up in Corning, New York, and was the daughter of Michael Hennessey Higgins and Anne Purcell Higgins. Margaret’s mother had eleven children and seven miscarriages, which had a significant impact on her life.
Margaret’s mother was devoted secretly to Catholicism, while her father, Michael Higgins, played a prominent role in her upbringing. Margaret described him as a staunch non-conformist who held socialist beliefs and was skeptical of organized religion, particularly Catholicism. Michael made a living as a stonemason and crafted tombstones with religious figures, an ironic twist of fate. He supported controversial politics, and his disdain for Orthodox Christianity led to financial struggles for the family.
The autobiography Margaret penned reveals how her childhood in Corning deeply influenced her. It led to her later advocacy for birth control. She saw a stark contrast between large and small families. Sanger linked the former to poverty, hardship, and turmoil and the latter to comfort, leisure, and happiness.
Margaret’s mother did not go to church against her husband’s wishes, but she would secretly go with her daughter when he was absent. Sanger was secretly baptized and confirmed. But, her father’s outspoken views made her feel estranged from the church. The clash marked her early years. It was between her father’s freethinking ideals and her mother’s silent Catholicism. That laid the foundation for her later activism in reproductive rights.
Margaret left Corning for Claverack College, a boarding high school, where she met fellow student Corey Alberson. They became secretly engaged, but instead of marrying, they opted for a “trial marriage.” Her father summoned her home due to her mother’s failing health, which interrupted her studies. Despite his usual disdain for religion, Michael allowed a priest to give last rites to Margaret’s mother. She passed away on March 31, 1899.
Margaret was not very close to her mother. She held a grudge against her father for bringing her back from school and believed that he was responsible for her mother’s death, which she attributed to too many pregnancies. After her mother passed away, she left Corning and worked as an apprentice nurse at White Plains, New York hospital. Margaret met William Sanger, a young architect, at a hospital party there. William found her radical views appealing, and they quickly fell in love. They got married in August 1902 after a short and intense courtship.
The couple moved to New York and later to Hastings, where they started a family. With the married last name of Sanger, Margaret gave birth to three children: Stuart in 1903, Grant in 1908, and Peggy in 1911. But she struggled with the duties of motherhood. Sanger often neglected her children to pursue her interests in radical political causes, such as anarchism. Unlike her mother, Anne, she preferred to leave her children in the care of others rather than tend to them herself.
Sanger immersed herself in radical circles. She became involved in the growing birth control movement. By 1911, Sanger began lecturing and writing about the importance of contraception. She saw the harsh conditions faced by the working poor. That fueled her fiery activism for socialist causes. It was reminiscent of her father’s influence. Sanger found the discussions among radicals stimulating. They were more so than the duties of motherhood. During these talks, she encountered the “free love” movement through Emma Goldman. Her husband, William, could not support it.
Despite her radical activism, Sanger returned to nursing. She specialized in midwifery and joined the Visiting Nurses Association of New York City. There, Sanger helped women in poor areas with childbirth. The tragic death of her client Sadie Sachs from a self-induced abortion in 1912 affected Sanger. It sparked her determination to address the root causes of such tragedies. But that led to further into the dark “sciences.”
Sachs’s death played a role in Sanger’s advocacy for birth control. Yet, her beliefs in sexual freedom and the new science of eugenics were also influential. Sanger became more outspoken about sexual freedom. Her marriage to William suffered. It culminated in an affair during a visit to Emma Goldman in 1913. Goldman was a free love movement influencer of the day.
Sanger’s behavior and neglect of their children enraged and dismayed William. He suggested a second honeymoon in Paris to save their marriage. But, Sanger was eager to return to America to spread contraceptive knowledge. So, she left for the United States with the children, leaving William behind in Europe.
Soon, William began hearing about Sanger having a new lover. This revelation did not amuse him. He was distraught when Sanger suggested he take a mistress. Her embrace of anarchist ideas about sex upset her husband, who was already an anarchist. Sanger redirected her energies toward publishing, starting with The Woman Rebel in 1914, adorned with the motto “No Gods! No Masters!” In this publication, she criticized capitalism and religion while championing contraception.
During this period, Sanger’s rebellion against traditional marriage norms intensified. When William expressed concerns about the rumors, she told him that she needed sex to relax. She said he could stay celibate if he wished, but she would not. At this point, her actions matched her creed. Sanger wrote in The Woman Rebel: “A woman’s duty is to look the whole world in the face with a go-to-hell look in the eyes. She must have an idea and speak and act against convention.” In the same publication, she focused on her anarchist prowess: “Rebel women claim the Right to be Lazy and the Right to be an Unmarried Mother. The Right to Destroy. The Right to Create. The Right to Live and the Right of Love.”2
In late 1914, Margaret Sanger began advocating for birth control and anarchist ideals, which angered authorities and forced her to flee to Europe to avoid prosecution. She left her husband, William, and their children in the United States. In mid-December, Sanger wrote a letter to William to end their twelve-year relationship. Three years later, she pressed for a divorce, which took four more years.
During her year in exile, Margaret Sanger collected more information on birth control from European sources. She sought guidance from the infamous “sexologist” Havelock Ellis. Sanger revered him as a sexual authority, and their relationship became an affair. That caused distress to Ellis’s wife, Edith. She attempted suicide many times before falling into a diabetic coma. Sanger’s affair with Ellis was one in a series. She had relationships with various people, including anarchists, industrialists, and writers.
Sanger’s liaison with Ellis marked the beginning of a series of affairs. Her notable lovers included anarchist Lorenzo Portet, Jonah Goldstein, Hugh de Selincourt, and J. Noah Slee (magnate behind Three-in-One Oil). She married the magnate for money, which allowed her to keep her freedom through a careful marriage agreement. Sanger’s other big-league liaisons included H. G. Wells, Herbert Simonds, Harold Child, Angus Sneed MacDonald, and Hobson Pitman. This romantic carousel characterized her entire life. As an old woman, she advised her 16-year-old granddaughter, “As for intercourse, I’d say three times a day was about right.”3
Sanger proposed a unique theory of evolution to justify her sexuality. According to her theory, sexual desire is a powerful force that can drive evolution beyond the survival of the fittest to the rise of genius. However, she believed that old ethical beliefs and scientific limits obstructed this sexual path to genius. Sanger argued that outdated ethical doctrines hindered true civilization and that liberation would come through science, a progenitor of “trust the science.” Sanger emphasized that sex was critical not only for making babies but also for driving the creation of genius.
Modern science is teaching us that genius is not some mysterious gift of the gods, some treasure conferred upon individuals chosen by chance. Nor is it, as Lombroso believed, the result of a pathological and degenerate condition, allied to criminality and madness. Rather is it due to the removal of physiological and psychological inhibitions and constraints which makes possible the release and the channeling of the primordial inner energies of man into full and divine expression. The removal of these inhibitions, so scientists assure us, makes possible more rapid and profound perceptions,—so rapid indeed that they seem to the ordinary human being, practically instantaneous, or intuitive. The qualities of genius are not, therefore, qualities lacking in the common reservoir of humanity, but rather the unimpeded release and direction of powers latent in all of us. This process of course is not necessarily conscious.4
In a paradoxical turn of thought, Sanger argued that the Christian emphasis on virtue led to vice.
The great central problem, and one which must be taken first is the abolition of the shame and fear of sex. We must teach men the overwhelming power of this radiant force. We must make them understand that uncontrolled, it is a cruel tyrant, but that controlled and directed, it may be used to transmute and sublimate the everyday world into a realm of beauty and joy. Through sex, mankind may attain the great spiritual illumination which will transform the world, which will light up the only path to an earthly paradise. So must we necessarily and inevitably conceive of sex-expression.5
For Sanger, freeing sexuality from constraints was quasi-religious. It represented the goal of reaching paradise. In her vision, men and women would no longer spend their energy on Christian ideals of an afterlife. They would recognize that life on earth was in a self-fashioned sexual utopia. It held the potential for their everlasting bliss. In this envisioned paradise, birth control would be of paramount importance. But, it’s essential to grasp that sexual desire did not only drive Sanger’s birth control advocacy. She also viewed birth control as a eugenic measure, aiming to eradicate what she perceived as “the dead weight of human waste.”
Such philanthropy, as Dean Inge has so unanswerably pointed out, is kind only to be cruel, and unwittingly promotes precisely the results most deprecated. It encourages the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant.6
Eugenics was not a side part of Sanger’s beliefs or a mere product of her era. It was central to her advocacy for birth control. In 1917, Sanger established The Birth Control Review. While more subtle than The Woman Rebel, it still had blunt arguments for eugenics. One of her preferred slogans on the masthead was “Birth Control: To Create a Race of Thoroughbreds.” By 1929, she replaced that outlandish statement with the less acidic manta “Babies by Choice, Not Chance.” Sanger made a telling proclamation.
… the top problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective. … we may need to use drastic and Spartan methods. We will need them if we keep encouraging the chance and chaotic breeding from our stupid, cruel sentimentalism.
Sanger presented birth control as a compassionate solution, advocating for it passionately due to her fear and disgust of the flood of feebleminded people overwhelming the population and dragging humanity backward in evolution.
Sanger corresponded with Ernst Rudin, a Nazi Party member. He led the notorious German medical experimentation programs. Rudin was a big name in the eugenics movement in Germany and had influential roles in the Nazi regime. He shaped policies on racial hygiene, and Sanger shared Rudin’s views on eugenics and population control. She sought his expertise and advice for her organization. Sanger likely did so due to Rudin’s reputation as a leading authority in the field. The exact nature and extent of their collaboration lack documentation. But, we know that Sanger corresponded with Rudin and admired his work promoting eugenic policies.
The Rudin-Sanger correspondences highlight the troubling links between eugenics movements. That movement was in various countries in the early 20th century. Proponents shared ideas and strategies despite the ethics of their actions. Sanger’s alignment with Rudin raises questions about her views on racial hygiene. It shows how much Sanger was willing to pursue her eugenic agenda. She was willing to do this even if it meant working with people complicit in heinous acts.
Many erotic fantasies and fetishes engulfed Sanger, yet she found fulfillment to be out of reach. She sought other paths to satisfaction. Sanger delved into the occult, doing seances and embracing Eastern meditation. She sought initiation into the esoteric traditions of Rosicrucianism and Theosophy. To be forthright, the claims of Sanger’s association with the occult deserve a dose of caution. Little evidence exists showing a deep involvement in these esoteric realms.
Sanger argued that old-style giving alone would not fix degeneracy, crime, and pauperism. Such approaches did not tackle her declared “root cause,” the unchecked fertility of the feebleminded. According to Sanger, regular philanthropy kept defectives, delinquents, and dependents alive. She saw them as the most harmful elements to human progress. Sangerian philanthropy was different as it aimed to cut the “dead weight of human waste” with eugenic measures. Sanger proposed the forced segregation of feebleminded people during their reproductive years. Sterilization was a preferred option if needed. Sanger believed that birth control offered a solution to a problem. The problem had long vexed eugenicists. Civilization’s softening of nature and the prolifically of the feebleminded hindered natural selection. Birth control, in her view, emerged as the most effective eugenic method, providing a concrete and realistic tool for racial health.
The above story makes it clear that three main motivations drove the organizations led by Sanger:
Reducing the load on women overwhelmed by child-rearing
Freeing sexuality from morals
Advancing eugenic ideals
Sanger founded the National Birth Control League, later renamed the American Birth Control League (incorporated in 1922). Then, it became the Birth Control Federation of America in 1939. It took its current name in 1942 as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Notably, Sanger herself expressed dissent over this name alteration. That aligns with Sanger’s support for women’s “right” to abort. PPFA has become the world’s largest provider of abortions. It upholds the principle of “The Right to Destroy.”
PPFA did not shy away from endorsing eugenic principles. Before Nazism’s stigma, many people served on the boards of both PPFA (and its forerunners) and the American Eugenics Society. Even after World War II, Alan Guttmacher led PPFA from 1962 to 1974. He also founded its affiliate, the Alan Guttmacher Institute. In 1957, he was vice president of the American Eugenics Society.
PPFA has continued Sanger’s eugenic legacy. They have promoted prenatal testing as a routine measure for people “at risk” of having children with congenital disorders. In a 1977 policy paper, PPFA called for national efforts. The paper “Planned Births, the Future of the Family, and the Quality of American Life” argued for a national policy and program to handle this issue. These include pregnancy testing, preventive care, and prenatal diagnosis of fetal problems. They also include genetic counseling, venereal disease prevention, and abortion.
Additionally, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has been an active supporter of sexual liberation, advocating the dismantling of traditional moral values. This position aligns with the vision of its founder, Margaret Sanger, who aimed to break down societal barriers to create a sexual utopia. However, Sanger’s personal life, which she kept hidden from the public, reveals the poverty of her views. She was a self-centered individual who neglected her children and engaged in multiple romantic relationships. She also sought fame and relentlessly promoted birth control. Sanger’s insatiable sexual desires led her to lavish parties where she used her inherited wealth to meet her lovers. As she grew older, her passion turned into depression, alcoholism, and addiction to painkillers. She eventually died in a nursing home in 1966, shortly before her eighty-seventh birthday. Sanger’s life highlights the emptiness and sadness that can arise from pursuing such hedonistic pursuits. Despite advocating for sexual freedom, her own life was a testament to the futility of such pursuits.
Reflection
Margaret Sanger was a crucial figure in the history of “family planning” and sexual liberation. She left an unforgettable mark on society that continues to shape our sex views. Sanger committed herself to challenging societal taboos and restrictions surrounding sexuality. She defied norms and laws. Sanger’s actions laid the groundwork for a shift in attitudes toward sex. She challenged the norm of healthy and natural monogamous heterosexuality through an open discussion of contraception and family planning. She is a towering figure in the inculcation of society to accept sexual activity totally uncoupled from procreation.
Furthermore, Sanger advocated for birth control and access to contraception. Her work contributed to declining traditional gender roles and relationship dynamics. Sanger gave women total control over their fertility. That lets them pursue education, careers, and fulfillment. They could do so without the fear of unwanted pregnancy. This shift has resulted in a quixotic alt-reality whereby relationships and sex have no link regardless of the age of people. A rejection of Natural Law.
While Sanger may not have exhibited the copious amount of blatant racism often attributed to her, the intolerance towards the “unfit” was stark.7 This categorization extended beyond ethnic boundaries. Sanger’s prejudice was more concerned with individuals’ health and intelligence than the color of their skin.
The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be faced immediately. Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives. The male defectives are no less dangerous. Segregation carried out for one or two generations would give us only partial control of the problem. Moreover, when we realize that each feeble-minded person is a potential source of an endless progeny of defect, we prefer the policy of immediate sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely prohibited to the feeble-minded.8
Margaret Sanger advocated for birth control and eugenics. However, they perpetuated harmful stereotypes and discrimination, especially towards marginalized communities. It is undeniable that her influence on today’s sexual mores is profound and far-reaching. Sanger did not advocate for the transsexuality ecosystem of today. But, her eugenics work laid the groundwork for that new means to neuter people. Undeniably, it is a form of population control. Furthermore, her notion of a sexual utopia foreshadowed the putrid perversion of every type foisted on children today by those who dare claim they educate the students.
At 17:35 in the above 1957 interview, Mike Wallace asks Sanger a poignant question about public birth control funding. Specifically, he asks if Catholic lay people have a democratic right to oppose the use of city public funds for birth control. Sanger responded in a round of linguistic gymnastics to avoid a direct answer. For classical Christians and others who follow Natural Law, the designated place is in the back of the “democracy” bus. Furthermore, Wallace’s mention of Natural Law made Sanger uncomfortable.
In a stunning revolution of evolution, we go from the 1957 question of local government funding of contraceptives to hundreds of millions going to PPFA. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, PPFA received nearly $700 million in Federal government grants and reimbursements. Of course, the official narrative claims abortions constitute only about 3% of the services provided by PPFA. Restrictions on government funding of abortion have led to increased scrutiny of their finances. Nevertheless, PPFA’s annual reports provide solid evidence that it continues to prioritize abortion. The remaining 97% of services include some questionable activities.
Do we, the taxpayers, have a say in the above matter? Of course, we have no input, illustrating that we live in a dumbocracy. Moreover, engage in prayer across the street from a PPFA facility. You will face the possibility of being placed on an FBI domestic terrorist watch list. If alive today, Margaret Sanger would tell the cogent thinking taxpayer a thing or two, just like at 17:35 in the above video.
PPFA bestowed an annual Margaret Sanger Award. They gave it to people and groups contributing to “reproductive health” and rights. Some notable recipients of the Margaret Sanger Award include:
Katharine Hepburn: 1983 for advocating for reproductive rights and supporting Planned Parenthood.
Ted Turner: 2004 for the Turner Foundation’s support of PPFA and Planned Parenthood of New Mexico.
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 2009 for her lifelong dedication to advancing women’s rights and reproductive health. [In the linked video, Clinton says she “admires Sanger.”]
Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer: 2013 for being “.. an inspiring pioneer who understands that there’s no such thing as too much information when it comes to sexuality.”
Nancy Pelosi: 2014 for her leadership and advocacy for reproductive rights and health care access.
As a ponderable thought, inquisitive minds might wonder if any of the above people have insight into Sanger’s life. Nevertheless, PPFA has subtly distanced itself from its link to Sanger. The PPFA Margaret Sanger Awards website shows 2015 as the last award. The above notwithstanding, in an overarching reality, much of its “services” mirror the goals of Sanger. Moreover, it now embraces the mass psychosis called gender identity as a core element of its business plan.
Conclusion
Margaret Sanger’s life was a tapestry woven with contrasting influences and complex motivations. She was born into a world of differing beliefs. She navigated the rough waters of her upbringing to become a towering figure in the reproductive rights movement. An unrelenting belief in personal autonomy and “social justice” drove her advocacy for birth control. Sanger entangled her advocacy with eugenic ideals. PPFA honored her legacy with the Margaret Sanger Award.
We must examine her contributions and the broader implications of her work. Sanger’s activism paved the way for women’s autonomy. But, it also raises uncomfortable questions about the links of rights, eugenics, and justice.
Sanger’s story reminds us of the complexity of social change and the importance of facing the details of historical figures and movements. Reflecting on her life and legacy, we must face the lurid truths.
Parting Shot
Eugenics and Planned Parenthood – Margaret Sanger. Hosted by Colin D. Heaton. Forgothistorytory is a 10th Legion Pictures Production.
The term eugenics is basically a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population, historically by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior and promoting those judged to be superior. But the Germans did not invent eugenics. In fact they were inspired by the founder of the taxpayer funded Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. The truth behind the genesis of that organization and its founder are much darker than most Americans realize. 9 📕
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Sources
Online Sources
Frederick R. Smith Library
Architects of the Culture of Death ~ Benjamin Wiker, 410 pages, Ignatius Press, April 2004
Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality Through Education ~ B.K. Eakman, 600 pages, Huntington House Publishers, August 1998
Hope of the Wicked: The Master Plan to Rule the World ~ Ted Flynn, 490 pages, Maxkol Commuinications Inc., April 2000
Killer Angel: A Biography of Planned Parenthood’s Founder Margaret Sanger ~ George Grant, 114 pages, Ars Vitae Press, 1995
The Pivot of Civilization ~ Margaret Sanger, 207 pages, 1922 [Kindle version]
Recommended Associated Reading: Frederick R. Smith Essays
Sanger, Margaret. Autobiography
Gray, Madeline, Margaret Sanger: A biography of the champion of Birth Control | As cited in Architects of the Culture of Death (see above under “Sources”)
Ibid
Sanger, Margaret. The Pivot of Civilization | Kindle Edition
Ibid
Ibid
As an example, there is the claim that the KKK gave Sanger an honorary title and inducted her into that nefarious organization. The documentation used to write this essay lacks reference to that assertion. While Sanger’s views and actions are subject to critique and debate, it’s crucial to distinguish between fact and unfounded allegations.
Ibid, Pivot of Civilization
KKK reference at 5:44; see note 7. However, this does not imply that the rest of the documentary is unworthy of consideration.
Isn’t this the woman who created Planned Parenthood with the idea to put them in mostly black poor neighborhoods to NOT HELP them , but for them to abort because she believed blacks were inferior?
Is it possible that Sanger picked the anarchist elements that matched her own sex obsession; and simply expanded on the theme in order to get more of the hedonistic life she wanted? She showed traits of the "born without empathy capability" people.