How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
We have learned in the preceding sessions of this Conference that, if we wish to produce strong and sturdy children, the embryo must grow in a chemically healthy medium. The blood stream of the mother must be chemically normal. Worry, strain, shock, unhappiness, enforced maternity, may all poison the blood of the enslaved mother. This chemically poisoned blood may produce a defective baby--a child foredoomed to idiocy, or feeble-mindedness, crime, or failure. (39-42)
Yeah, sure, Sanger. Blame the mother for everything. That's one thing everyone can agree on. But seriously, because many people weren't on board with the whole "let women decide when they have babies" thing, Sanger's choice to present maternal health as inextricably tied to child health is smart.
Nobody wants an innocent baby to suffer, so hey, let's take care of the mothers in order to take care of the babies.
Quote #2
There is only one way out. We have got to fight for the health and happiness of the Unborn Child. And to do that in a practical, tangible way, we have got to free women from enforced, enslaved maternity. (49-51)
Sanger makes the connection here between the mother's body and the Unborn Child. She acknowledges that, at least until birth, they're connected, an idea that both the pro-life and pro-choice movements seem to struggle with today.
Quote #3
There can be no hope for the future of civilization, no certainty of racial salvation, until every woman can decide for herself whether she will or will not become a mother and when and how many children she cares to bring into the world. That is the first step. (52-53)
Big words, Sanger. "The future of civilization?" That's where we're going with this? Hyperbole much?
Sounds like it at first…but maybe it's an exaggeration and maybe it's not. Birth control affects big issues like population and class mobility. What do you think? Is it a stretch to say the future of civilization depends on birth control, or is it actually true?