Margaret Sanger was a controversial figure in women’s liberation, an activist for birth control who later founded Planned Parenthood. And yesterday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got grilled by two Republican members of Congress for praising Sanger.
“Sanger,” Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said, “was an unapologetic eugenicist and racist who said ‘the most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it.’ And said on another occasion, ‘eugenics is the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.’”
Emily Belz at World magazine writes:
Clinton didn’t respond to the Sanger quotes at first, but later in the hearing when questioned again on the matter, she said in all humans (she used Thomas Jefferson’s slave holding as an example) “there are things we admire and there are things we deplore.”
Deplorable, indeed. Now, politicians can get worked up over just about anything. But eugenics is about as ugly a world as Nazi. And for good reason.
(Hat tip: Christianity Today Politics Blog)
