Modern Eugenics: How Abortion is Getting Rid of "Undesirables"

by Rich Deem

Introduction

One of the arguments proposed by pro-choice proponents as favoring legalized abortion is that abortion prevents children from being born into the world who are "unwanted." Since unwanted children are more apt to become criminals (so the theory goes), it is good that they would never be born. Besides preventing crime, abortion is reported to be a solution to the world's overpopulation problem.

Donohue and Levitt

John J. Donohue III (professor of law at Stanford University) and Steven D. Levitt (professor of law at University of Chicago) say: "Legalized abortion contributed significantly to recent crime reductions." Their study was published in the second quarter, 2001 Harvard's Quarterly Journal of Economics.1 According to the authors, "Crime began to fall roughly 18 years after abortion legalization." Since 1991, homicide rates are down 40 percent, violent crime and property crime are down 30 percent. After controlling for other factors, Donohue and Levitt conclude: "Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime."

Donohue and Levitt say that poor women and teenage girls are "substantially more likely" to have abortions, and children born to such mothers have a higher than normal probability of committing crimes between the ages of 18 and 24. However, they go beyond these assumptions and examine the affects of abortion across racial boundaries. It turns out that abortion has not been uniformly used by all races, ethnic and social groups. Abortion has had only modest effects on the fertility of white women, but large reductions in teen fertility and teen out-of-wedlock fertility among blacks. Donohue and Levitt come to the conclusion that, "Given that homicide rates of black youths are roughly nine times higher than those of white youths, racial differences in the fertility effects of abortion are likely to translate into greater homicide reductions." In other words, by reducing the number of black babies born in the United States, abortion has lowered the crime rate.



Figure 1, adapted from Lott and John Whitley2

The idea that more readily available abortions has resulted in reduced crime has been criticized by a study by John R. Lott Jr. and John Whitley.2 It turns out that analyzing the share of crime committed by different ages across states and years rather than assuming that the weights are constant reverses the sign on the estimates done in the Donohue and Levitt study. So, those who were born after 1973 (after abortion was legalized) contributed most to crime increases in the mid-1990's. When analyzed correctly legalizing abortion actually increased murder rates by 0.5 to 7 percent.

The probably reason for the increase in murder rates after the adoption of Roe v. Wade could be due to the huge increase in out-of-wedlock births following the Roe v. Wade decision. On average during 1965-69, only 4.8 percent of whites were born out-of-wedlock, which rose to 16.1 percent twenty years later (1985 to 1989). For blacks, the numbers rose from 34.9 to 61.8 percent. In 1969 only 28 percent of children born out-of-wedlock were being raised by mothers who were still unmarried within three years. By 1984, that same fraction had doubled to 56 percent. Hence, most of the children born out-of-wedlock before legalized abortion ended up in families with a father, whereas most after Roe v. Wade ended up in single parent families.

Hidden liberal agenda

Eugenics is the idea that humans are only the sum of their DNA and that people of inferior genetics should be eliminated. According to Darwin's disciple, Francis Galton:

"I do not see why any insolence of caste should prevent the gifted class, when they had the power, from treating their compatriots with all kindness, so long as they maintained celibacy. But if these continued to procreate children inferior in moral, intellectual and physical qualities, it is easy to believe the time may come when such persons would be considered as enemies to the State, and to have forfeited all claims to kindness."3

According to Margaret Sanger, a member of both the American Eugenics Society and the English Eugenics Society (and founder of Planned Parenthood, the United States' largest abortion provider):

"Those least fit to carry on the race are increasing most rapidly ... Funds that should be used to raise the standard of our civilization are diverted to maintenance of those who should never have been born."4

Examples of those favoring extermination of certain races is not just restricted to those who lived decades or hundreds of years ago. One particularly glaring example comes from James R. (Ron) Weddington, one of the co-counsels for Roe v. Wade, the famous Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion as a "right" in the United States. Weddington wrote to president elect Bill Clinton in 1992,5 advocating elimination of the lower class through birth control and abortion:

"But you can start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country. No, I'm, not advocating some, sort of mass extinction of these unfortunate people. Crime, drugs and disease are already doing that. The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can't afford to have babies.

There, I've said it. It's what we all know is true, but we only whisper it, because as liberals who believe in individual rights, we view any program which might treat the disadvantaged differently as discriminatory, mean-spirited and...well...so Republican...

Condoms alone won't do it. Depo-Provera, Norplant and the new birth control injection being developed in India are not a complete answer...

No, government is also going to have to provide vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions...RU 486 and conventional abortions. Even if we make birth control as ubiquitous as sneakers and junk food, there will still be unplanned pregnancies. There have been about 30 million abortions in this country since Roe v. Wade. Think of all the poverty, crime and misery ...and then add 30 million unwanted babies to the scenario...

We don't need more cannon fodder. We don't need more parishioners, We don't need more cheap labor. We don't need more poor babies"5

So, Weddington's solution to the "problem" of the poor is to convince them to use birth control, and when that fails, provide them with government-funded abortions. Planned Parenthood has taken this strategy to heart, putting the vast majority of their abortion clinics in inner city neighborhoods, resulting in a disproportionate number of abortions among African Americans and Hispanics. So, even though African Americans makeup only 12% of the U.S. population, they account for 35% of all abortions.6

Nancy Pelosi - "no apologies"

The latest twist on preventing minorities from reproducing comes from the liberal speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Part of Barack Obama's economic stimulus package calls for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding of "family planning services" (i.e., birth control and abortion) to "reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."7 This part of the "stimulus package" will specifically target minorities to convince them not to produce children, under the guise of saving governments money on providing education and other benefits to those children. The current administration's message is, "we don't want your children!"

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg

In a surprising admission during an interview for the New York Times, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said, "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don�t want to have too many of."8 Justice Ginsberg didn't elaborate on exactly what populations "we don�t want to have too many of", but subsequently mentioned Medicaid funding, which would primarily affect minorities.

Medical eugenics

Eugenics has become part of the standard recommendations of the majority of doctors within the medical community. According to Bob Edwards, the scientist who facilitated the birth of England's first test-tube baby, those who fail to terminate a Down syndrome child are "sinners" and "genetic outlaws." At a time when "medicine" seems more concerned about costs than ethics, a recent study put the average lifetime cost of each "new case" of Down syndrome at $451,000.9 The purpose of the study was to determine the costs associated with banning "second trimester elective terminations for prenatally diagnosed abnormalities." As pointed out by Professor Elizabeth R. Schiltz, "Imagine the public outrage that would greet the publication of a study calculating the cost of not terminating pregnancies if it were broken down into a category such as family income."9

Getting rid of "undesirables"

Abortion proponents have always said that it is better that children not be born rather than be "unwanted." Abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood have been peddling abortion to minorities as a means of reducing births among these groups. Abortion is a modern, politically correct form of eugenics - elimination of undesirables, such as minorities who are more likely to commit crimes. If you are a minority, you should be outraged that the liberals have convinced your teenaged daughters that abortion is the solution to unaccountable behavior.

Conclusion

In contrast to what the liberal agenda says, the Bible says that all people have equal worth, since all are created in the image of God.10 Although liberalism teaches that certain "unwanted" humans have less inherent worth than others who are wanted, the Bible states that all human life has worth in God's eyes,11 which is also reflected in the Declaration of Independence.12



Planned Parenthood accepting donations for black abortions

Related Pages

References

http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/moderneugenics.html

Last Modified July 12, 2009