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About this quote

What does it mean?
Overbreeding among the working class is blamed for societal problems, and actions helping the race survive are called moral.
In plain terms
Too many babies in the working class cause problems, so controlling this is moral.
What can you take from it?
Population control is framed as a moral duty to ensure human survival.

Where it applies

  • population control debates
  • eugenic arguments
  • social policy

Putting it to work

  • discuss population ethics
  • advocate for family planning
  • analyze historical eugenics

Questions to consider

  • Who defines what is moral for a race?
  • What are the dangers of population control?

Another view

This view is rooted in controversial eugenic ideologies that devalue certain groups.

More from Margaret Sanger

  1. Has knowledge of birth control, so carefully guarded and so secretly practiced by the women of the wealthy class - and so tenaciously withheld from the working…

    Permalink to quote #19
  2. Knowledge of birth control is essentially moral. Its general, though prudent, practice must lead to a higher individuality and ultimately to a cleaner race.

    Permalink to quote #21
  3. Our laws force women into celibacy on the one hand, or abortion on the other. [npg] Both conditions are declared by eminent medical authorities to be injurious…

    Permalink to quote #18

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