Birth Control and its Racist History with Eugenics

With the continued advocacy for reproductive rights in the United States today, I think it is important to address the history of the birth control pill. Birth control for women is hardly perfect even today–considering the enormous list of side effects–but its history has an even darker past. Margaret Sanger, the face of the movement for birth control, advocated for its role in eugenics, a racially biased form of population control. I did not know the history of birth control, let alone its historical ties to eugenics until I took an introductory course on gender studies my freshman year of college. People who may never take a course in gender studies will never know the historically racist past birth control has, and how that still impacts our conversation around reproductive rights today.

Margaret Sanger, one of eleven children and midwife to poor families in Manhattan, understood much of the physical and psychological toll pregnancy takes on a woman. Her own experiences inspired her to advocate for the woman’s right to choose what happens with her body and thus became her life’s work advocating for reproductive rights. She fought against the patriarchal hierarchy in the Catholic Church and was exiled to Europe for her “indecency” in the informational pamphlets she would write about sex education (Griffith). With her efforts, she was able to open the first birth control clinic in the United States which helped to establish organizations like Planned Parenthood today.

Margaret Sanger, however, was a white woman advocating for white women's bodies. In 1921, Sanger published “The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda,” which overtly advocates for population control of racial minorities in the United States. She writes in this publication, “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective” (Sanger). The people she is referring to are low-income communities, disabled communities, and people of color. Author and professor Marie Griffith summarizes this by saying, “Birth control was not only about female emancipation, then; it was also about controlling the racial makeup of the nation, often quite overtly.” (Griffith 12). Today, some believe that Planned Parenthoods are targeting minority populations, see an interactive map here. But, a 2014 survey of all abortion providers “found that 60 percent are in majority-white neighborhoods.” (Kelly). Although the eugenic ideals may not be behind access to birth control today, the targeting of African-Americans in the US healthcare system is still a problem that needs to be addressed.

An important takeaway from my research was the urgency of intersectionality. Whether it be advocating for a social justice issue, building affordable housing, or making a decision for a community it is crucial that every human has their rights accounted for. No matter race, sexuality, ability, or religion.

Works Cited

Griffith, R. Marie. Moral Combat : How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics. Basic Books, 2017. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=nlebk&AN=1512339&site=ehost-live

Kelly Amita,“Fact Check: Was Planned Parenthood Started To ‘Control’ The Black Population?” NPR.Org, https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/14/432080520/fact-check-was-planned-parenthood-started-to-control-the-black-population. Accessed 19 Feb. 2021.

Sanger, Margaret, “The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda,” Birth Control Review. Oct 1921. Margaret Sanger Microfilm

image source:

https://coveteur.com/2016/11/17/going-off-birth-control-pill-need-to-know/