“But for my view, I believe that there should be no more babies.”
— Interview with John Parsons, 1947
“The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
— Woman and the New Race, Chapter 5, “The Wickedness of Creating Large Families.”
“We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…”
— Letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, December 10, 1939, p. 2
“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, An Autobiography, published in 1938, p. 366
“I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world, that have disease from their parents, that 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.”
— Interview with journalist Mike Wallace, 1957
“The most serious evil of our times is that of encouraging the bringing into the world of large families. The most immoral practice of the day is breeding too many children…”
— Sanger, Margaret. Woman and the New Race (1920). Chapter 5: The Wickedness of Creating Large Families.
“The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”
— Sanger, Margaret. (1921) The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda, Birth
“No more children should be born when the parents, though healthy themselves, find that their children are physically or mentally defective.”
— Sanger, Margaret. (1918) When Should A Woman Avoid Having Children? Birth Control Review, Nov. 1918, 6-7, Margaret Sanger Microfilm, S70:807.
“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, “America Needs a Code for Babies,” Article 4, March 27, 1934.
“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.”
— Sanger, Margaret. “My Way to Peace,” Jan. 17, 1932. Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress 130:198.
“Organized charity itself is the symptom of a malignant social disease…”
— Sanger, Margaret (1922). The Pivot of Civilization.
“All of our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class… Knowledge of birth control is essentially moral. Its general, though prudent, practice must lead to a higher individuality and ultimately to a cleaner race.”
— Margaret Sanger, “Morality and Birth Control,” Feb-Mar 1918.
