On a sunny day in Brooklyn, October 16th, 1916, the doors to the first birth control clinic in America were opened. In the pamphlet inviting them, women had been told, “DO NOT KILL, DO NOT TAKE LIFE, BUT PREVENT.” Now they lined the halls, waiting their turn to hear the information. As groups of women were ushered in, they were told that no matter how early it was performed, abortion was taking life and was wrong. Contraception was encouraged, which although being "a little trouble" was worth it because life had not yet begun. 1

Who was running this clinic? None other than the “notorious” Margaret Sanger, who would end up in jail for her activities. After the opening, rumours were spread that they were committing abortions, which scared many women away, but drew a new crowd in. When a Jewish wife and mother threatened to kill herself if she could not have an abortion, Sanger convinced her not to kill herself or her baby. 1

One of the most famous quotes by Margaret Sanger goes like this, “The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” 2 

It’s the first quote that comes up when you google her name. It’s used by many pro-lifers when talking about the history of planned parenthood, I have used it myself. 

About a year ago, a pro-choicer told me that I was taking the quote out of context. It was a ridiculous claim. Of course Sanger was talking about abortion! Everyone knows that she promoted abortion, especially for those with disabilities, for races she looked down on and for poor populations. I decided to start digging into her writings, as it would be the easiest way to expose her. 

It’s almost been a year since I first began my research. I’ve read many of Sanger’s books, including her autobiography, ‘Woman and the New Race’, and ‘The Pivot of Civilization’. I’ve also done searches through her entire collection of writings, and have found that my perception of her was not entirely accurate. 

Sanger is often depicted as an abortion fanatic, sometimes painted with blood running down her face and hands as she holds an aborted baby. However, over and over again in her writings, she classed abortion with infanticide and child abandonment. 3 She called it a horror 4, abhorrent practice 5, barbaric & crude 6, and a disgrace to civilization. 7 She said that permitting thousands of women each year to go through abortions is absurd cruelty 8 and that abortion is inhuman. 9 In the strongest language possible she condemned abortion. One of her chapters even begins with a poem by Amelia Josephine Burr entitled, “The Song of the Unborn’. 10 She also referred to abortion as "killing of babies in the womb" 11, and said that prenatal care was essential, as the unborn baby has "rights no less imperative". 12

In 1918, she defined abortion as anything which attempts to remove or stop further growth after the sperm meets the ovum. 13 In other words, she also would not have approved of birth control that works after fertilization. When a Russian doctor told her that they had birth control, but then explained that it was abortion, she said, “We don’t want that. Birth control is different.” 14

Sanger’s first introduction to abortion was during her training as a nurse. She worked in hospitals with poor women, who came in mangled and dying from abortions. Aside from calling out abortion for ending a life, she wrote chapters on abortion’s effects on women, the dangers to their bodies and health. This seemed to be her main focus when she wrote about abortion.

Sanger peddled birth control as a way to prevent and end abortion. She believed that laws were not enough to stop it. As long as women didn't have an education, continued having large families they couldn't afford, she believed that they would go to desperate means. She pointed to history as a witness to the fact. "Family limitation will always be practised as it is now being practised–-either by Birth Control or by abortion. We know that. The one means health and happiness–-a stronger, better race. The other means disease, suffering, death.” 15

Let’s circle back to her quote about killing an infant being the most merciful thing you can do. To be completely honest, I still don’t understand what she was saying. She wasn’t talking about abortion, that’s for sure. The chapter in which the quote is included talks about the death rate of children during their first year of life. She says that 12th born children have a 60% mortality rate, then goes on to say that those who live for more than a year very often die before they reach the age of five. Here is the full paragraph surrounding the quote.

“Many, perhaps, will think it idle to go farther in demonstrating the immorality of large families, but since there is still an abundance of proof at hand, it may be offered for the sake of those who find difficulty in adjusting old-fashioned ideas to the facts. The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it. The same factors which create the terrible infant mortality rate, and which swell the death rate of children between the ages of one and five, operate even more extensively to lower the health rate of the surviving members. Moreover, the overcrowded homes of large families reared in poverty further contribute to this condition. Lack of medical attention is still another factor, so that the child who must struggle for health in competition with other members of a closely packed family has still great difficulties to meet after its poor constitution and malnutrition have been accounted for.” 2

I’m not sure what Sanger is getting at here. It doesn’t seem probable to me that she’s telling parents to kill their children. Was she saying that was the common belief at the time, and why infanticides and abortion were committed? Or maybe she was trying to get her point across that life for the youngest of large families was very difficult in her time, and that dying young was a more merciful end than fighting to survive for the rest of their life? I obviously disagree with that. Life was very hard for poor families during the time in which she lived, but life is worth living despite the struggles that come in it. 

The conclusion to this first installment of my Margaret Sanger series is that she did not support abortion. She was actually anti-abortion and touted birth control as the only way to end the practice. 

Of course, as history shows, birth control did not end abortions. In fact, the organization that she founded with the claim that it would end abortion, is now the primary provider of abortions in the US. Many of the arguments she used to promote birth control are now being used to promote abortion. What would she think of that? 

NOTE: I will be following up with two articles about Sanger on racism & Nazism - which has been published here, eugenics and sterilization which is published here. This is not meant to be a defense of Sanger, I do not consider her a hero or role model. I simply believe that it is important to be accurate, and want to correct myths that have been circulating about her and establish the facts about her. Like most historical figures, she is more complex than we might think.

1 – Margaret Sanger: an autobiography, Chapter 17

2 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter IX

3 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter IV

4 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter IV

5 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter IV

6 – Margaret Sanger: an autobiography, Chapter 15

7 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter XIV

8 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter XVIII

9 – Asia Discovers Birth Control,” Reader’s Digest, July 1956.

10 – The Pivot of Civilization, CHAPTER IV

11 – Woman & The New Race, Chapter XVIII

12 – The Children's Era

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/margaretsangerchildrensera.html

13 – Birth Control or Abortion?

https://www.bartleby.com/1013/10.html

14 – Margaret Sanger: an autobiography, Chapter 36

15 – Birth Control or Abortion?

https://www.bartleby.com/1013/10.html