After the idea of eugenics began to take hold of the medical and social sciences, many people hoped to improve their community and future by disallowing certain peoples the ability to reproduce.

This culture quickly turned to practices involving sterilization and making those deemed unfit for society unable to reproduce. In 1897, the Michigan Legislature became the first in the U.S. to propose a law allowing the sterilization of those deemed inferior. The law passed in the legislature but later was vetoed by Gov. Hazen S. Pingree. It wasn’t long after, however, that other states began proposing, and passing, similar laws.

As these sterilization laws became widespread throughout the nation, a culture of superior vs. inferior began to develop. The eradication of the “weaker” people for the betterment of future generations began to take hold and become acceptable in America. In 1927, in the ruling of the case Buck v. Bell, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated in favor of forced sterilization:

“It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.”

As the 20th century began to unfold, the ideas of eugenics and the methods to go about it began to take a turn. People began to use the “noble” cause of eugenics to single out groups and races.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, courted eugenicists for their support of her radical “birth control” to breed out “dysgenic stocks” such as the “Jewish, Hispanics, Native Americans and Catholics.” Her cause was focused in promoting positive views of birth control while using it as a method to slow the growth of minority populations.

Big names, such as John D. Rockefeller and J.H. Kellogg, used their assets to promote research of eugenics and established organizations such as the Race Betterment Foundation. Kellogg once spoke in favor of eugenics as a way of promoting “…the whiter races of Europe [and] to establish a Race of Human Thoroughbreds.” In the late 1920s and early ‘30s, Rockefeller even worked with Nazi researchers, funding collaboration in American labs on the study of a “super race.” These studies were the basis of Josef Mengele’s infamous twin studies which later were practiced in Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp.

The application of eugenics in America continued after WWII, and forced sterilization continued until as late as the 1970s.

And the influence the early 20th century eugenics movement had on America still is impacting us today.

The state of North Carolina struggled with suits and had considered compensation for victims of eugenics in 2012. Planned Parenthood receives millions of dollars worth of taxpayer funding each year. The concentration of Planned Parenthood offices are in impoverished areas with high-minority populations.

The focus might not be eugenics, as when Sanger first started, but the programs offered have maintained their essence of controlling population and artificially manipulating the reproductive system against childbearing — in essence, a chosen non-permanent sterilization.

In this day and age, we need to support the rights of those once viewed as “unfit” for society. Eugenics still is with us today through Planned Parenthood. The ruling of Roe v. Wade and our modern interpretation of the 14th Amendment allows for a selective breeding. A woman can choose to take birth control pills promoted as “Safe, effective and convenient.” Abortions are viewed as an equally viable option.

We have seen the disgusting power and viciousness eugenics has brought to our history. America is just as guilty as the Third Reich, if not more. The very potential for life is not something to “conveniently” throw away. Our acceptance of this new sterilization has allowed the termination of 55 million pregnancies via abortion in America since the Roe v. Wade ruling.

The population of Michigan as of the last census is just under 10 million. That number does not include pills and other forms of contraceptives.

As a nation, we need to reconsider the way we look at life and reproduction. We need to consider our eugenic past and where it has led us, and see that the repercussions still are alive today.

As Mother Theresa once said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let
us begin.”

Nick Bruewer is a guest columnist at The State News and a media and information sophomore. Reach him at bruewern@msu.edu.