Misquoting Planned Parenthood - The End Does Not Justify the Means
Human Weeds and a Menace to the Race
Recently this writer has seen the following quote attributed to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
"[Slavs, Latin, and Hebrew immigrants are] human weeds ... a deadweight of human waste ... [Blacks, soldiers, and Jews are a] menace to the race.
"Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need ... We must prevent Multiplication of this bad stock."
Margaret Sanger, April 1933 Birth Control Review.
This quote can be found on the Roman Catholic EWTN TV website as well as numerous other websites. Most recently it is found on the Facebook page of "Conservative Lady."
When this writer saw the quote he wanted to find the full context of the quote, especially after a brief Google search revealed that Planned Parenthood itself denied that Sanger had written this.
As we see, the quote is attributed to Margaret Sanger in the April 1933 edition of Birth Control Review. Another brief Google search revealed that back issues of Birth Control Review can be found, free of charge, on the University of Pennsylvania's website. Without much trouble one can find the April 1933 issue. Click Here to read the issue.
What we will find is that neither is the quote in this issue, nor did Margaret Sanger have an article in this issue. Why didn't she? Backtracking to the index of the archives we find the following quote by the folks at the University of Pennsylvania:
"The Birth Control Review was begun in 1917 by Margaret Sanger, who edited the Review until 1929. A new series began in 1933."
So Sanger wasn't even the editor after 1929.
This writer contacted "Conservative Lady" on Facebook, and posted the facts. However, the falsely-attributed statement remains up. Why is this?
The End Justifies the Means?
Some Christians seem to think that the end justifies the means. Their attitude may be "Well, this may not be what she said, but it certainly reflects her beliefs elsewhere." That is irrelevant, however.
For one thing, intentionally leaving a quote up that is known to be wrong is lying.
Secondly, once someone takes the trouble to prove the quote to be wrong it shows sloppy research on the part of the original poster and casts doubt on everything else that poster has said, even if the poster is correct on everything else.
Third, it's an excuse for someone to dismiss everything else that opposes Planned Parenthood.
Fourth, it makes Christians look like a bunch of fanatics who don't care about the truth.
There is no doubt that Sanger said some atrocious things against Blacks and others. There is also no doubt that Planned Parenthood is responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of unborn children every year. However, misrepresenting what they say is the wrong way to sway people away from supporting them.
