"Hitler himself, and the Nazi doctrine he created, were unequivocally opposed to any individual right to abortion." (Gloria Steinem, Ms., Oct. 1980) So opposed to abortion that about 500,000 induced abortions were performed in 1935 in NAZI Germany (with a population of roughly 65 million). To understand the magnitude of Gloria Steinem's lie, one must read:

Book:   The Abortion Holocaust (Landmark Press, 1983)
Author: William Brennan (in 1983 Brennan was a professor in the School
          of Social Service at St. Louis University; he is also author
          of Medical Holocausts)

Is this some 'crank' book? "Just as German medicine made the NAZI holocaust possible, American medicine has created a uniquely American holocaust. Brennan's massively documented, terrifying analysis, in my opinion, the single most important book for every citizen who wants to understand the two holocausts." So wrote Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D., FAAP and author of Confessions of a Medical Heretic.

This book is an interesting read and appears to be very well researched. One topic Brennan covers is the question of whether Hitler was pro-abortion or not. "Individuals such as Gloria Steinem, who have characterized Hitler as unequivocably opposed to abortion, are right then? Not at all. This in only part of the picture, and a minor one at that. Hitler's opposition to abortion possessed a definite ideological flavor: the building of a master race of Aryans. The converse of this, the tearing down of non-Aryans, necessitated a strong pro-abortion mindset [for non-Aryans]. ....." (p. 33)

"Questions for a Personally Opposed Politician, Adolf Hitler

1. If Hitler was opposed to abortion, why didn't he demand that Germany's strong law protective of human life before birth (enacted in 1871) be retained?

2. If Hitler was opposed to abortion, why did he leave the matter of abortion in the hands of the most vociferous pro-abortion physicians and medical organizations in Germany?

3. If Hitler was opposed to abortion, why did he permit the establishment of guidelines and procedures for legal abortion in close conformity to those developed by the Berlin Chamber of Physicians, a prominent advocate of permissive abortion under the guise of health?

4. If the Nazi government had such restrictive laws on abortion, why were there at least half-a-million abortions performed annually in Germany?

5. If Hitler was opposed to abortion, why did he say that 'in view of the large families of native population it could only suit us if girls and women there had as many abortions as possible'?

6. If Hitler was opposed to abortion, why did he order that abortion on demand be instituted as the prevailing policy for all countries under Nazi domination?

7. If Hitler was opposed to abortion, why did he threaten to shoot anyone who attempted to forbid abortions in Nazi occupied areas?

8. If the Nazi government was opposed to abortion, why did it issue an endless series of decrees legalizing the destruction of the unborn throughout the Eastern territories?"

At risk of stating the obvious, some (perhaps, many) of the aborted were JEWS.

Do any 'pro-choice' doctors admit that Adolf Hitler's Third Reich enacted laws making abortion much easier? Yes. "The late Dr. Frederick J. Taussig, an obstetrics professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Taussig stood in the very forefront of the persistent campaign waged by American physicians to strike down laws protective of human life in the womb long before the Supreme Court got into the act of legalizing mass extermination. His book, Abortion Spontaneous and Induced: Medical and Social Aspects (1936), served as a veritable bible for the pro-abortion forces in their efforts to obtain legal recognition of unlawful assaults on the unborn." What did Dr. Taussig say in his 1936 book about abortion in Hitler's Germany?

The struggle to have therapeutic indications for abortion (done by a physician) legally recognized did not meet with success until 1933, when the new enactments passed by the Hitler government established that abortion under genuine medical indications is not subject to punishment when demanded and performed by legally qualified physicians." (page 424, Abortion Spontaneous and Induced)

Would Gloria Steinem like to contradict the good doctor?

William Brennan reminds us, "In NAZI Germany as long as the abortion was performed by a doctor it was considered "therapeutic"."

Are there other sources tending to validate the estimate of 500,000 abortions per year in Nazi Germany? Here is what the number two man in the Nazi leadership, Heinrich Himmler, wrote to Field-Marshal Willhelm Keitel (Master Race, The Lebensborn Experiment in Nazi Germany, Catrine clay, Michael Leapman, 1995, pp. 66-67):

According to statistics there are 600,000 abortions a year in Germany. The fact that these happen among the best German racial types has been worrying me for years. The way I see it we cannot afford to lose these young people, hundreds and thousands of them. The aim of protecting this German blood is of the highest priority. If we manage to stop these abortions we will be able to have 200 more German regiments every year on the march. Another 500,000 to 600,000 people could produce millions of marks for the economy. The strength of these soldiers and workers will build the greater Germany. This is why I founded Lebensborn in 1936. It fights abortions in a positive way. Every woman can have her child in peace and quiet and devote her life to the betterment of the race.

Although Adolf was an evil monster, the preceding paragraph implies that he and his Nazis did NOT have 100% control over all aspects of life; otherwise, no Aryan woman would have had an induced abortion, just Jewish women and those considered mentally or physically handicapped would have been able to have abortions; clearly, this was not how it turned out. I.E. the 'net effect' of Hitler's 1933 law was 'pro-choice', regardless of what he wanted ('pro-life' for Aryans but 'pro-choice' for non-Aryans). To be more precise, what Hitler would have liked to have been the result for non-Aryans: 'pro-choice' plus many forced abortions (as is the case in China today). In the 1920s and 1930s New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty denied in print that there was any famine in the Ukraine. After 1980 the New York Times finally admitted that Duranty's denials of famine in the Ukraine were denials of fact. Will Ms. magazine take as long to expose the false denial of Gloria Steinem (she asserted that Hitler was anti-abortion)?

LIFE,
Mike Richmond

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Reprinted with permission. All emphasis added.

Abortion