Margaret Sanger, (1879-1966) American birth control activist, sex educator, nurse, founded the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [1-22] of 22 Margaret Sanger quotesMargaret Sanger QuotesMargaret Sanger Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.~ Margaret Sanger A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.~ Margaret Sanger Apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.~ Margaret Sanger As an advocate for birth control, I wish to take advantage of the present opportunity to point out that the unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit', admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization, can never be rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two classes.~ Margaret Sanger Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.~ Margaret Sanger Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.~ Margaret Sanger Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need ... We must prevent multiplication of this bad stock.~ Margaret Sanger Give dysgenic groups [people with 'bad genes'] in our population their choice of segregation or [compulsory] sterilization.~ Margaret Sanger I accepted an invitation to talk to the women's branch of the Ku Klux Klan...I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak...In the end, through simple illustrations, I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.~ Margaret Sanger I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world, that have disease from their parents, they have no chance in the world to be a human being practically...Delinquents, prisoners, all sorts of things just marked when they're born. That to me is the greatest sin -- that people can -- can commit.~ Margaret Sanger No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit for parenthood.~ Margaret Sanger Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying… a dead weight of human waste… an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.~ Margaret Sanger The campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics.~ Margaret Sanger The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order...~ Margaret Sanger The procreation of [the diseased, the feeble-minded and paupers] should be stopped.~ Margaret Sanger The unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' [is] the greatest present menace to civilization… the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.~ Margaret Sanger The undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind.~ Margaret Sanger We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…~ Margaret Sanger ...these two words [birth control] sum up our whole philosophy...It means the release and cultivation of better elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination, and eventual extinction, of defective stocks -- those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.~ Margaret Sanger [N]o one can doubt that there are times when an abortion is justifiable but they will become unnecessary when care is taken to prevent conception. This is the only cure for abortions.~ Margaret Sanger [Our objective is] unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children...~ Margaret Sanger [W]hile there are cases where even the law recognizes an abortion as justifiable if recommended by a physician, I assert that the hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in America each year are a disgrace to civilization.~ Margaret Sanger Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print