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Saturday, April 29, 2017

1973: The Year Humanists, Eugenicists, and Abortion Advocates Joined Forces


By Carole Novielli
Live Action News


The Humanist Manifesto was a document written in rejection of orthodox teaching on religion and the existence of God and was signed by several prominent leaders in the abortion movement. 

In 1933, 34 humanists, including John Dewey, gathered together to write the radical Humanist Manifesto 1, which came at a time when eugenic philosophy was dominating culture. It rode in on the heels of Hitler’s reign of terror in Nazi Germany and preceded, by just a few short years, the very first committee on euthanasia (National Society for the Legalization of Euthanasia), put together by several members of Margaret Sanger’s American Birth Control League as well as members of the American Eugenics Society.

Interestingly enough, in 1957, Sanger received the “Humanist of the Year” award.  In 1973, 40 years after the first Manifesto was penned, Humanist Manifesto II was drafted. This Manifesto came at a time when overpopulation, birth control, and abortion were prominent concerns, and it is reflected in the text of the document:

We reject all religious, ideological, or moral codes that denigrate the individual, suppress freedom, dull intellect, dehumanize personality. We believe in maximum individual autonomy… the possibilities of individual freedom of choice exist in human life and should be increased….
The right to birth control, abortion and divorce should be recognized… a civilized society should be a tolerant one. The insertion of abortion into Humanist Manifesto 11 attracted leaders in the movement who signed onto the Humanist ideology.

Signers included:

  • Alan F. Guttmacher, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
  • Norman Fleishman, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood World Population, Los Angeles
  • Lawrence Lader, chairman of the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (which later became NARAL)
  • Henry Morgentaler, M.D., Canadian abortionist and past president of Humanist Association of Canada
  • Betty Friedan, founder of N.O.W., who was later granted the “Humanist of the Year” award in 1975
Manifestos I and II rejected God and attempted to outline how humans could work to save themselves from the ills of society.

Book Cover: Humanist Manifesto
1 and 11 edited by Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz, who published the Manifestos in 1973, wrote about this in his preface:

As in 1933, humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to love and care for persons…is an unproved and outmoded faith…. Reasonable minds look to other means for survival.


Manifesto II reinforced the belief that God and religion were to be ignored while human reasoning was to be exalted:

We believe… that traditional dogmatic or authoritative religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species…. As nontheists, we begin with humans not God….”

Blogger's Note:  The common denominator in socialism, communism, fascism and modern day progressivism has, at its roots, godlessness and a pagan worldview. Hence, the ultimate acceptance and approval of the worst of sins, premeditated murder of unborn babies.

Believing in "maximum individual autonomy" is the antithesis of the Truth in the Word of God.  This godless philosophy is self-destructive for individuals and nations.  History has recorded over many millennia the downfall of civilizations who rejected or denied the existence of God and made themselves god.   

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