In this book Elasah Drogin sets out to clearly present the true beliefs and character of Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and eugenicist.
The book is divided into five sections, and in the first she presents an analysis of the highlights of Sanger's life. To do this she relies on numerous biographies, but most prominently Sanger's own, sifting through the falsehood to discover the truth of her character. The second section is a meticulous chapter by chapter dissection of Margaret Sanger's "The Pivot of Civilization," which allows incredible insight into her true beliefs. The third section deals with the lowlights of Sanger's life, detailing some of the more grim and personal aspects of the woman. All three of these sections are absolutely fantastic, and I have little to complain about them. Drogin is not setting out an argument (though she does not hide her opinions regarding Sanger), but presenting the facts, leaving little to accuse her of.
The fourth section of her book, however, is where Drogin falls short. In this part she details the actions taken by Margaret Sanger's most ardent opponent, Msgr. Ryan. This section is less of a historical analysis (though it still is one), with repetitive references to Ryan being a 'true liberal.' There is also a troubling plethora of Communist language, such as cries to defend the proletariat and warnings against the 'capitalists.' This is very odd considering that Ms. Drogin is a devoted Roman Catholic and has written the entire book from a Catholic perspective. Section five is a short argument against I.Q. tests.
Elasah Drogin is a fantastic social historian. Her work on Margaret Sanger is phenomenal, some of the best I've ever seen. However, she begins to fall short in her section on Msgr. Ryan. Her personal views muddy the waters in the fourth section, making it hard to distinguish between her own beliefs and those of Ryan. Because of this I hesitate to give it as high a score as the first three sections alone would warrant, and so I render it a 4/5.
This book has been sitting in our homeschool room for a couple of years now, and I've been meaning to read it all that time. Because, y'know, it's good for pro-lifers to know a bit about the foundress of Planned Parenthood.
While I was fairly unimpressed with the quality of the writing/organization of the book itself, it was full of fascinating (and disgusting) facts about Margaret Sanger. Like how she wanted to implement PARENTING PERMITS. And exterminate minority populations/the poor. And how she referred to birth control as her "religion" and had so many extramarital affairs and was incredibly materialistic. It's well-documented with quotations from Margaret Sanger's writings as well as with graphics/covers from her journal, the Birth Control Review.
Actually...I kind of want to find another book about Margaret Sanger, one that doesn't JUST focus on how awful she was; because, I mean, I want to know who she WAS and what went WRONG. What made her tick. How did she think this worldview was justifiable. Why did she hate minorities so much.
She's an important part of the 1920s-1930s, y'know? She fits right into that same cultural scene that I'm already so keenly interested in--I mean, she had an affair with H.G. Wells, for crying out loud. She encapsulates everything that was WRONG with the era, all the dangerous eugenics that Chesterton was warning against, all the wrong answers to the pressing social justice problems. And obviously, she's had a big impact on modernity as we know it.
I'm interested in Margaret Sanger. In a kind of morbid way, perhaps. But I'm interested. Keenly.
“My body, my choice,” or a calculated plot to convince a population of “undesirables, the unfit, racially impure, and sub-sub human” to contracept themselves and kill their off-spring?
This book, along with Sanger’s own ‘A Pivotal Civilization,’ pulls back the curtain on the true aims of Planned Parenthood and the greater pro-abortion and contraception industrial complex.
Sanger debases human reproduction, while simultaneously claiming “sex unhindered from the fears of childbearing” is the highest achievement of humanity while also claiming that, to control one’s sexual desires through self-imposed abstinence is animalistic.
With extensive citations, we are given an unfiltered view of just a handful of Sanger’s most eugenic, racist, and bigoted beliefs.
Planned Parenthood, in recent years, has made attempts of distance itself from the eugenic and racist ethos on which it was founded. Yet today, Sanger would be proud that the majority of abortions, sterilizations, and those preventing pregnancy are those whom she called to be eradicated from society; notably black and brown women, indigenous women, and in their latest money making scheme, working toward the mass sterilization of gender non-conforming people.
Sanger’s ethic remains the cornerstone of Planned Parenthood and the so-called pro-choice movement at large. With eugenics regaining popularity at the time of writing of this review (fall 2026) how long before we see the fullness of Sanger’s eugenics hopes come to pass?