History was one of my favorite subjects in College.  The famous quote from the Spanish Philosopher George Santayana, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” is one of my favorite historical quotes because it is valid not only for world history but also our own personal history.  I mention this because it is very appropriate when it comes to the history and popularity of abortion in our culture. There are 1.5 million average abortions per year in the United States. 

Abortion has strong historical ties to the Eugenics movement of the late 19^th and early 20^th Century.   Eugenics, Greek for “good birth,” is the study of methods to improve the human race by controlling reproduction.  Eugenics was a popular movement in the United States and Europe.  Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, coined “Eugenics” in 1883.  Galton developed Eugenics, based on the works of Charles Darwin, and specifically, “The Ascent of Man,” according to the new book “Darwin Day in America” by Dr. John G. West.  In “The Ascent of Man,” Darwin clearly reveals, in no uncertain terms, that evolution, acting on natural selection and “survival of the fittest,” meant that not all humans were equal.  The fact the Eugenics was developed after these works were published, and their almost universal acceptance, is no coincidence.  Eugenics was so popular in the United States from the 1890s to 1945 that most states had Eugenics laws on the books, meaning that people considered to be less equal could be forcibly sterilized. 

 Adolph Hitler was an ardent Darwinist and adopted a form of Eugenics in his “Final Solution” which resulted in six million Jews murdered in Nazi ovens. The State of Indiana passed the first forced sterilization law in 1907, then 30 states followed. The principal targets of the American program were the mentally retarded and the mentally ill, but also targeted under many state laws were the deaf, the blind, people with epilepsy, and the physically deformed.  Native Americans, as well as Afro-American women, were sterilized against their will in many states, often without their knowledge. 

In 1920 17 year-old Carrie Buck was forcibly sterilized under a Virginia law because she was declared feeble minded after exhibiting alleged hallucinations following being forcibly raped and becoming pregnant.  Carrie chose to have her baby.  After giving birth Carrie’s daughter was also considered feeble minded.  The young girl was enrolled in school and made the honor roll before dying of an infection at the age of eight. The forced sterilization case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 (Buck vs. Bell), which ruled against her and Carrie was forcibly sterilized.  Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was quoted as saying that “three generations of imbeciles are enough,” according to John West.  Carrie lived a normal life and was considered to be no different than anyone else.  Carrie's first husband died after 25 years of marriage.  She remarried and remained married to her second husband until her death in 1983.

Eugenics was supported by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and the best minds of science in the United States.  In England Julian Huxley and George Bernard Shaw were ardent supporters of Eugenics. 

It was the Church that complained loudly against Eugenics, specifically the Catholic Church which condemned it.  Pope Pius XI condemned Eugenics in an encyclical in 1930.  The Catholic Church deserves the greatest credit for speaking out on Eugenics and being a force for its defeat.  Protestants Billy Sunday and William Jennings Bryan also spoke out forcibly against Eugenics according to “Darwin Day in America.”  The Unites States science community, however, believed that Eugenics was good science and defended it. 

 Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was clearly dedicated to Eugenics; she considered certain races such as blacks, inferior.  In 1939 Sanger created the “Negro Project.”  The aim of this project was to put a lid on the growth rate of the black population.  She was an advocate of sterilization, as well as abortion to eliminate the “unfit.”  Planned Parenthood clinics have been strategically located in proximity to black neighborhoods and schools. Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortion in the United States.  The United States government funds over one third of the yearly budget of Planned Parenthood, approximately $300 million dollars.  That is correct, your taxes.  According to an article in “The Weekly Standard” by Charlotte Allen, in the October 2007 issue, for fiscal year 2005-2006, total government aid to Planned Parenthood amounted to $305.3 million.  This same article reveals how Planned Parenthood willfully refuses to report any statutory rapes by adult men of young girls under 16.  This undercover YouTube video filmed at a Los Angeles Planned Parenthood office confirms it. 

Planned Parenthood’s targeting of blacks is totally ignored, not only by the general population, but also by blacks themselves.  It is estimated that the black population of the United States is 12%.  According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2003 there were 839,713 abortions in the United States, EXCLUDING California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and West Virginia.  The average yearly abortion in the United States is believed to be around 1.5 million per year.  Of this total, 37% of all abortions were black babies – and no one ever complains.  Barack Obama, a black man, and the Democratic Presidential candidate of 2008, and possibly the next President, has clearly stated: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” For more information on Obama’s stance on partial birth abortion see my last article on this blog called “I Will not Punish them With a Baby.” Dated May 8, 2008.  Clearly Eugenics is still winning, although we no longer called it that. 

How the black population of the United States can ignore their children being slaughtered at such a rate is beyond explanation.  When Rodney King was beaten by a couple of Los Angeles Police Officers in 1992, the entire black population of Los Angeles erupted into the most destructive riots in history.  At the time I was vacationing in Italy and saw the utter destruction of Los Angeles on Italian Television.  A subscript on the TV pictures stated:  “Los Angeles burns.”  One man gets beaten and millions of people riot, 14 million black babies have been murdered since 1973 and nobody complains.  The black presidential candidate states that he wants to make this type of killing a constitutional right.  What am I missing here?  Have I arrived at a different planet where there is a different logic and moral compass?  I guess so.  Abortion today is the same as Eugenics was in the first part of the 20^th Century.  Those of us who do care are portrayed as “one-issue” advocates by leftist Christians and “ultra conservative Catholics” as Fr. Richard McBrien, a Catholic Theologian at Notre Dame, called us in an article in the “Tidings” titled “Banned in Boston” In the January 6, 2006 issue.