Eugenics, anyone?

Via ProlifeBlogs, I've read the Judicial Watch's Clinton RU-486 Files report. Various memos between Clinton staff members show how hard the Clinton administration worked to get the abortion drug to American soil and how the drug's maker was wary of selling the drug in the U.S.

At the end of files there is a disturbing letter to then-President-elect Clinton from Ron Weddington. Ron Weddington is the ex-husband of Sarah Weddington and was her co-counsel when she argued Roe v. Wade in front of the Supreme Court. After reading the letter, it's hard not to put Weddington in the camp of eugenicists. This letter to the editor of the New York Times in 2003 doesn't help either.

In his letter to Clinton, Weddington channels Margaret Sanger,

"But you can start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country. No, I'm not advocating some sort of mass extinction of these unfortunate people. Crime, drugs and disease are already doing that. The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can't afford to have babies.

There, I've said it. It's what we all know is true, but we only whisper it, because as liberals who believe in individual rights, we view any program which might treat the disadvantages differently as discriminatory, mean-spirited and ..... well.... so Republican.....

I am not proposing that you send federal agents armed with Depo-Provera dart guns to the ghetto. You should use persuasion rather than coercion.....

Point out that only people like George Bush who inherit money can pay for more than one or two kids in today's economy.

After noting that birth control won't completely solve the America's main problem (in the eyes of Weddington) of "barely educated, unhealthy and poor people" breeding, Weddington notes,

No, government is also going to have to provide vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions....RU-486 and conventional abortions. Even if we make abortion as ubiquitous as sneakers and junk food, there will still be unplanned pregnancies.....

P.S. I was co-counsel in Roe v. Wade, have sired zero children and one fetus, the abortion of which was recently recounted by my ex-wife in her book, A Question of Choice. I had a vasectomy in 1969 and have never had one moment of regret.

Sarah Weddington's book recounts how she had an abortion in Mexico in 1967. Sarah and Ron divorced in 1974.

Imagine how much Eugenics Kool-Aid one has to drink to believe that in late 1992/early 1993 only people who inherit boatloads of money could pay for more than one or two children. Weddington knew that his plan to keep poor people from having children was discriminatory but he didn't care. To him, the supposed greater good of society outweighed whether the "barely-educated" should be allowed to have as many children as they want.