How Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution Impacted Margaret Sanger

In 1859 Charles Darwin published a book entitled, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In this book he attempted to explain the diversity of life on earth and also the origin of life. He showed that plants and animals can change in order to adapt to their surroundings through a process he called Natural Selection. He didn't make any reference to God and claimed that the processes of change we observe today are responsible for the origin of life on our planet. Darwin's theories became very popular in the later half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. People who wanted a world without God were happy to have an explanation for the existence of life without Him. Unfortunately, these theories would be widely adopted as truth and would adversely influence the lives of many people who would, in turn, have an impact on history. One such person was Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, the leading advocate of abortion in America today.

Margaret Sanger was born on September 14, 1879. Her childhood was miserable with a father who spent most of the family money on alcohol. He strongly disliked Christianity, and when Margaret was baptised on March 23, 1893, it had to be kept a secret from him. He was known for his radical political views. Margaret was greatly influenced by the deprivation of her childhood and by her father's radical political views. She eventually followed in his footsteps and became involved in radical politics herself. She was also greatly influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. She believed she was “working alongside the universal law of evolution to advance humankind.” 1

Margaret Sanger adopted the belief that there were unfit humans who should not reproduce due to their inferior genetic makeup. She applied Darwin's belief about survival of the fittest to humans and said the genetic makeup of the poor, minorities, and mentally challenged was inferior. One of her main focuses was to encourage the process of Eugenics in the human population. She made it her life's mission to slow the reproduction of those she thought inferior through birth control. She believed that birth control was "nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit."2

Charles Darwin is quoted as saying, "We must bear without complaining the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely the weaker and inferior members of society not marrying so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased, though this is more to be hoped for than expected, by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage."3 Margaret Sanger was not satisfied to only hope the weak and unfit would refrain from marriage; she made it her life mission to hinder their reproduction. She began a movement whose mission was to produce a superior race, and she is quoted as saying, "Today the average reliance of civilization is based upon iron and steel, bricks and mortar, and we must change this to the construction and evolution of humanity itself." 4 This mission led her to establish what is today a multi-billion dollar industry in America that takes the lives of over 4,000 unborn babies each day.

In the early 1920s Margaret Sanger started the American Birth Control League, which was the forerunner of Planned Parenthood. The purpose of this organization was to produce a more fit nation by discouraging reproduction among what Sanger considered to be the unfit members of society. She believed black people and other racial groups were mentally inferior. She said, "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,"5 For this reason Planned Parenthood clinics are located mostly in low income minority neighborhoods.

Since Darwin proposed that all life evolved from a single organism, at the core of Planned Parenthood is the belief that man is no different from animals. Margaret Sanger once said that, "The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."6 It seems probable that her deprivation during childhood opened her up to this thinking; and when she was exposed to Darwin's theories, she grabbed hold and ran with them. She "attributed insanity, epilepsy, criminality, prostitution, pauperism, mental defectiveness, and everything from child labor to world war to unchecked breeding."7

Today the slaughtering of innocent unborn babies continues in America and around the world through Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger, influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, spent her adult life pursuing a master race by encouraging the practice of Eugenics. The legacy she left was one of death and destruction. She died an embittered, broken-down alcoholic. If she had understood the fallacy of Darwin's theories about the origin of life, her life might have been different.

According to the Bible God created the earth and all life on it in six literal days. He created man in His image and made him different than the animals in that he created an eternal soul in him and an ability to have relationship with his creator. Creation scientists understand that man did not evolve from a single organism, and they do not lump him in with animals. Because of this, there is a respect for human life that is missing in Darwinian theories. Had Margaret Sanger understood and believed these principles, she would have valued all human life. She would have known that God has a purpose for every person, regardless of their race or mental abilities. Margaret Sanger may have spent her life doing good rather than evil had she acknowledged a creator God and surrendered her life to Him. There is no way to begin to estimate the damage that has been done and will be done because Margaret Sanger believed Charles Darwin rather than God.