Ginsburg drops a bomb

This goes beyond staunch support for abortion. Is Ginsburg a eugenicist?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems to have made a stunning admission in favor of cleansing America of unwanted populations by aborting them. In an interview with the New York Times, the judge said that Medicaid should cover abortions, and that she had originally expected that Roe v. Wade would facilitate such coverage in order to control the population of groups “that we don’t want to have too many of.”

What?!

The statement was made in the context of a discussion about the fact that abortions are not covered by Medicaid, and therefore are less available to poor women. “Reproductive choice has to be straightened out,” said Ginsburg, lamenting the fact that only women “of means” can easily access abortion.

“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of,” Ginsburg told Emily Bazelon of the New York Times.

How audacious.

Justice Ginsburg’s remarks appear to align her expectations for abortion with those of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, and other prominent members of the 20th century’s eugenics movement. Sanger and her eugenicist peers advocated the systematic use of contraception, sterilization, and abortion to reduce the numbers of poor, black, immigrant and disabled populations.

Ironically, the New York Times interview began as an exploration of Ginsburg’s thoughts on Supreme Court hopeful Sonia Sotomayor as she prepares for her confirmation hearings this month.  Coverage of Sotomayor frequently emphasizes her success story as an underprivileged minority from the Bronx who rose to prominence at Princeton and Yale Law.

So if Ginsburg and like-minded activists had had their way, how many Sotomayors…and Obamas….would never have been born? In fact, with abortion on demand provided when Justice Harry Blackmun took the law out of the hands of all 50 states with Roe, how many potentially great leaders, scholars, artists….even judges….have we lost, one wonders.

Under Ginsburg’s ideology, we would have lost many more.