Why Abortion is No Different than Sterilization Laws

Current abortion laws are not much different from those outdated compulsory sterilization laws. The Court held in Buck v. Bell (1927) that compulsory sterilization was legal. Justice Holmes declared “Three generations of imbeciles was enough” and Carrie Buck was sterilized. States used sterilization as a means to eliminate “defective” persons. Defective persons could be anyone with epilepsy to more extreme purposes including racial purity. Germans used Justice Holmes opinion in Buck for their defense at Nuremberg to fight war crimes. Buck has not been overruled, but its decision was diminished by Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942). Sterilization continued in the United States into the 21st Century. At the same time sterilization and eugenics were gaining popularity it is no surprise that abortion also gained more credibility.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, not only promoted abortion, but she also supported eugenics and sterilization. Sanger also saw abortion as a method to eliminate defective persons including minorities (especially African-Americans) and anyone who has a birth or mental defect. Today, many of Sanger’s extreme abortion philosophies have come to fruition. Half of all abortions are preformed on African-Americans who only make up 13% of the population. And abortion is being used by persons to eradicate “defects” such as downs syndrome. Recent articles have said that Iceland has almost eliminated downs syndrome persons and many countries are following their lead including the United States.

First, I would like to point out that downs syndrome persons are healthy and live highly functional and productive lives. They are happy persons who rarely become wrapped up in decisive politics. We need more persons like this, not less! The United States and our Constitution protects downs syndrome persons from discrimination. But isn’t aborting a down syndrome baby discrimination? How is this any different than China allowing millions of abortions of female babies each year? It is not any different, they are both discrimination. Chinese families are mandated to have only one child and a male is for some reason more desirable and therefore many families abort female babies. This is no different than aborting a downs syndrome baby.

Some argue abortion and sterilization are not the same since abortion is a voluntary act while sterilization was a mandatory act. I completely disagree. First, in many cases abortion decisions are influenced by liberal outlets and are not voluntary decisions. Secondly, a voluntary act of discrimination may be even worse than someone mandating discrimination because in many cases healthy babies are aborted for no reason other than birth control. Finally, both abortion and sterilization follow the philosophy of eugenics introduced over a century ago to eradicate “defective” persons and promote racial purity.