[November 30, 2024] Throughout the 1960s, there was a credible belief that the expanding world population would drive global starvation and other catastrophic consequences. In response to a request from the U.S. Population Council, Frederick Jaffe wrote a memorandum outlining then-current ideas for population control (reducing total population numbers and growth).
At the time, Jaffe was the vice president of Planned Parenthood. He was a well-known advocate for birth control and helped drive the federal government to fund family planning programs. His 1968 memo discussed a range of common methodologies of population growth and its impact on “family planning” efforts.
His memo included a table (link here) that summarized wide-ranging ideas, primarily on various forms of birth control. The table included a number of compulsory methods, like forced abortion and sterilization, which would later come back to haunt both Jaffe and Planned Parenthood. Regardless of his personal beliefs on the subject, Jaffe attempted to distance himself from the more extreme items in his memo.
The Jaffe memorandum served as a synthesis of a number of extreme ideas, both inside and outside of Planned Parenthood. We can see now, with hindsight, that the belief of a world-ending trend – the population bomb – can drive excessive government oversight and an overreach that can run roughshod over people’s legal and ethical rights.
At a Congressional hearing in 1973, Jaffe stated that “ … neither I nor the Planned Parenthood Federation of America advocates any of the specific proposals embodied in the table which go beyond voluntary actions by individual couples …” This hearing was in response to the backlash both Jaffe and Planned Parenthood received once the memo was made public.
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Please read my books:
- “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
“Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
Sir, thanks. I can see others also thanked you, but I came here thinking I’d just read another typical leadership blog but found your comments on the infamous Jaffe memo that tells us at the heart of a Leftist is a dictator wanting to get out. 🙏
Exceptional thanks to Gen. Satterfield for bringing this to our attention. I’d never heard of the Jaffe Memorandum and I’m sure few here have either. That is the point. Progressives don’t want their real intentions shown publicly because they know that their positions are unpopular. This is why both Biden and Harris would not make many public appearances and when they did, they talked about very broad issues. They didn’t want to be pinned down on anything.
Note that this came nearly 5 years after the book came out. I didn’t read anywhere in the Jaffe Memorandum that the authors or Planned Parenthood were opposed to “forced” abortion or sterilization.
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At a Congressional hearing in 1973, Jaffe stated that “ … neither I nor the Planned Parenthood Federation of America advocates any of the specific proposals embodied in the table which go beyond voluntary actions by individual couples …” This hearing was in response to the backlash both Jaffe and Planned Parenthood received once the memo was made public.
Like Gen. Satterfield likes to argue, abortion is a marker for an immature culture.
“Abortion: behavior in an Immature Culture”
https://www.theleadermaker.com/abortion-behavior-in-an-immature-culture/
JAFFE MEMO = EVIL
SWEENEY, sadly that is true and sadder that many in America believe it.
The Jaffe Memo is an example of how Leftists want to take away our God-given rights to have children and for it to be the decision of the family, not govt, about children. This is why climate change has become the newest crisis because Leftists now see that unregulated population growth is no longer a threat. But they still see humans as a virus that is making the earth sick. And thus they are the ones who should exercise the wand of the govt to reduce the population of humans. They are evil. Resist them at every turn.
As well as supporting ABORTION on demand, up to point of birth and beyond (infacide). This is the Democrat Party in America. Fortunately, in the last election, they were rejected, despite their cheating. Never vote for a Democrat ever!
Great point Maureen. Thank you for making this link n
The link between abortion (voluntarily or coerced) and humans as a virus is important to highlight for its evil intent.
Hi sir, it’s always nice to see you back again in the saddle after your surgery.
Thank you, sir for bringing awareness of the Jaffe Memo; one horrific document that lays out how the Planned Parenthood organization could become the mechanism to reduce the U.S. population using the government as the authority. PP would be the leading effort to “save the world” from all us breeding rubes. No wonder so many political conservatives want to reduce the power of government. If Kammaaalllla Harris, the slosh, had become president, we would soon be traveling down that road.
And that this is all based on the “progressive” ideology that the human population is spiraling towards being the enemy of earth. That’s why Gen. Satterfield reviewed The Population Bomb (1968).
There will always be those who want to force their immorality upon us.