Abortion: The Selfishness of Eugenics

The miracle of life truly is, well, miraculous. How two cells come together to form, perfectly, a small human life. The way a woman’s body changes to accommodate that new life throughout pregnancy. And even afterward, how a woman’s body can continue to sustain that life.

The full breadth of this miracle struck me more fully just a few short weeks ago when my husband and I discovered we’d soon be expecting the arrival of our own miracle. Instantaneously you’re enveloped with an overwhelming feeling of amazement that you’re now growing a small, human life inside of you. The rush of mixed emotions that washes over you in that moment, the revelation that soon you, a fallen, flawed human-being will be entrusted with the care of a helpless, roly-poly mini-human is humbling and scary.

But even as I thought of the precious son or daughter I soon will have the distinct honor of raising, I could not stop myself from thinking about those who believe that I—for no other reason than because I am a woman—have the “right” to snuff that life out.

Don’t get me wrong; I understand the pro-abortion argument. In fact, I am very familiar with it, as over the years I’ve had many pro-abortion friends and acquaintances. They all have their reasons for supporting that “choice,” whether for themselves or for others, yet there is not one single reason thus far that I’ve been compelled to agree with as I’ve found a majority of those reasons are rooted in either selfishness or Eugenics, and on occasion both.

The selfishness always reveals itself in the story. In college, I had one woman during the telling of her own abortion story express to me that she just didn’t understand why pro-lifers called her and others who support abortion “pro-death.” “After all, I got my abortion because I just wasn’t in a good spot in life and I didn’t want it to suffer. So, you see I’m pro-life, too!”

Shock. Pure shock! She believes she’s pro-life because she chose to kill her child so he didn’t have to suffer? There were no words, just shock at her selfishness and even more shock at her cluelessness about her selfishness.

In addition to selfishness, I’ve come across the Eugenics reason time and time again. Very briefly and roughly explained, Eugenics is the belief that society can be improved through controlling who reproduces (the “fit” vs. the “unfit”). Now, most who argue Eugenics during the abortion debate haven’t the slightest idea what they’re supporting. But, when they utter the phrase, “Well, some people just shouldn’t have kids.” that’s what they’re condoning.

As rare as you’d think that reason is, I’ve actually heard it many times and every time I ask the same question: “Do you know who Margaret Sanger is?” Most haven’t heard the name or they have a vague inclination of who it might be.

Margaret Sanger was a big supporter of Eugenics. She wrote many articles, delivered many speeches, and even founded an organization with Eugenics at the core of its mission. To Sanger, the “fit” were the lighter-skinned races, the “unfit” were the darker-skinned races, and it was abortion that would "assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit." The organization she founded would grow to make a huge impact in America. The organization was Planned Parenthood.

But even though I’ve heard these reasons, these excuses, a hundred times, it still is astonishing to me that a woman now, legally, has the right to unabashedly kill her child to protect her career, to protect her from struggle, to advance whatever selfish cause she supports. And what’s more, this “right” turns justice on its head. Instead of carrying out justice on the guilty, we’re killing the innocent to solve a problem—to rid our society of the “unfit”—with Planned Parenthood, as America’s largest abortion provider, leading the charge.

Every time I think of women who have chosen to take their child’s life; every time I think of those who support abortion purely on the basis that some people are “unfit” to have children; every time I think of the tiny life I carry inside of me, I’m reminded of a quote by Abraham Lincoln: “No law can give me the right to do what is wrong.”