As long as eugenics has ever existed, abortion has counted as a central tool for eugenic science. Due to the long and intricate history of eugenics, which started already in the 19th century and arrives at our current times, these two arguments cannot be separated from each other. Modern eugenic societies, such as the “International Federation of Eugenics Organisations” founded in London in 1912, were in pursuit of a pure “Aryan” race and the elimination of other unwanted groups of people because they were genetically unfit for modern society.[1] In those decades, Planned Parenthood – to this day the biggest organization advocating abortion in the USA – was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 and was later taken on by Alan Frank Guttmacher. Like many of their colleagues, these two gynecologists became international pioneers of abortion and sterilization and spread their racist eugenic views.
Later, Planned Parenthood became one of the main inspirational sources for the eugenical ideologies of Nazi Germany. Many doctors of the third Reich used Sangers principals to target people with disabilities especially, Jewish and non-white populations to “racial hygiene”, which included banning abortions for the German population, but endorsing forced abortions, sterilizations and human experimentation in the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. Jewish and Polish women especially were forced to abort, either for purely racist reasons or for gaining a lot of forced female workers during after the invasion of eastern European territories.[2] Moreover, abortion was one of the most frequent tools in concentration camps to hinder the reproduction of prisoners.[3] Interestingly enough, the Nazi never negated the humanity of the unborn and referred to it as a child.[4] The eugenic views of Nazi doctors can be especially seen during the Nuremberg War Crime trials, where they cited the American law “Buck V Bell”, which was endorsed by Sanger and gave the permission of the government to practice forced birth control.[5]
To this day, the tight link between abortion and eugenics has still not been broken. Most of the Planned Parenthood clinics, which were built near Black and Latino communities of American cities to kill their offspring, have still not been moved.[6]
In Europe, eugenic tendencies hurt people with disabilities, especially with Down Syndrome/trisomy 21. 92% of pregnancies with people with Down Syndrome in European countries are being aborted because of their disability and the possible societal problems that come with it.[7] Northern European countries especially are very hostile to them. In Iceland, close to a 100% of unborn babies with Down Syndrome are being killed in their mother’s womb.[8] Moreover, fetuses of aborted babies are used commonly for scientific experiments[9] – a practice which Nazi scientists have mastered in their laboratories with disabled people.[10]
[1] Black, Edwin, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race, (New York, 2003) p. 237.
[2] Hunt, John, Out of respect for life: Nazi abortion policy in the eastern occupied territories, 381.
[3] Hunt, Nazi abortion policy, 381-382.
[4] Hunt, Nazi abortion policy, 383.
[5] Forgotten History Channel, Eugenics and Planned Parenthood – Margaret Sanger – Forgotten History (04.07.2023), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP7ZzV4Z338&t=197s
[6] Nelson, Dean, Planned Parenthood: Rooted in Racism. Rooted in Racism – The Negro Project, https://www.humancoalition.org/2023/03/27/planned-parenthood-rooted-in-racism/, and Daniels, Cristina and others, The Effects on Abortion on the Black Community, p. 3, https://www.congress.gov/115/meeting/house/106562/witnesses/HHRG-115-JU10-Wstate-ParkerS-20171101-SD001.pdf
[7] Mansfield C, Hopfer S, Marteau TM (September 1999). “Termination rates after prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, spina bifida, anencephaly, and Turner and Klinefelter syndromes: a systematic literature review. Prenatal Diagnosis. 19 (9). Wiley: 808–812.
[8] Right to Life News, Iceland called out at UN for aborting almost 100% of babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, https://righttolife.org.uk/news/iceland-called-out-at-un-for-aborting-almost-100-of-babies-diagnosed-with-downs-syndrome.
[9] Wadman, Meredith, The Truth about Fetal Tissue research, https://www.nature.com/articles/528178a.
[10] Weindling, Paul, Painful and sometimes deadly experiments which Nazi doctors carried out on children, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/apa.16310