In recent years, the right wing, socially conservative Pro-Life movement in America has differed a bit from years past. Where they used to say all human life is sacred, they now say anyone who supports birth control or women's reproductive rights is racist. Well, they don't actually say that, but that is what they imply. Let me explain: in recent years, there has been an increasing amount of focus on the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, for her supposedly racist, eugenic views. Eugenics, for those who don't know, is the belief that one can improve the human condition by controlling who has children and who doesn't. It was put into use most infamously in Nazi Germany.
But what the pro-life movement won't tell you is that Margaret Sanger was not alone in her eugenicist or racial views. Many scientists and prominent figures of the twentieth century held views that we would today consider racist. Let's not forget how Henry Ford used to hand out copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamously anti-Semitic, conspiratorial screed, with every new car that he sold. Or, shall we go to old Walt Disney? Disney was notorious for asking his employees about their genetic makeup before he hired them. If they had one drop of Jewish blood in their system, sorry, no room for you at the Magic Kingdom. Some even get Hollywood movies: King Edward VIII, perhaps best-known for abdicating England's throne to marry an American divorcee, sent Hitler himself a birthday card in 1939, 5 months before the Nazis rolled into Poland. My point is, this is not about exposing the racist nature of Planned Parenthood, or even condemning eugenics. This is about controlling women, and making them little more than breeders. Do not be fooled by the new mask: this is about taking away a woman's most basic right, to direct her own destiny.
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