Editing Victoria Woodhull (section)

== Views on abortion and eugenics ==
Woodhull expressed thoughts on [[abortion]]:

<blockquote>Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth.<ref>Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard (1875).</ref></blockquote>

In one of her speeches, she states:
<blockquote>The rights of children, then, as individuals, begin while yet they are in foetal life. Children do not come into existence by any will or consent of their own.<ref>{{cite web|first=Victoria|last=Woodhull|title=Woodhull, Children – Their Rights and Privileges|url=http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/speech.htm|access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref></blockquote>

At the Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, on an essay called ''When Is It Not Murder to Take a Life?'', she asserts:
<blockquote>Many women who would be shocked at the very thought of killing their children after birth, deliberately destroy them previously. If there is any difference in the actual crime we should be glad to have those who practice the latter, point it out. The truth of the matter is that it is just as much a murder to destroy life in its embryotic condition, as it is to destroy it after the fully developed form is attained, for it is the self-same life that is taken.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|first=Victoria|last=Woodhull|title=When is it not murder to take a life?|url=http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/woodhull_and_claflins_weekly/woodhull_and_claflins_weekly_v1_n21_oct_8_1870.pdf|page=11|access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref></blockquote>

Later in the same essay she asks:
<blockquote>Can any one suggest a better than to so situate woman, that she may never be obligated to conceive a life she does not desire shall be continuous?<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>Woodhull also promoted [[eugenics]], which was popular in the early 20th century. Her views on eugenics tied into her views on abortion, because she blamed abortion for assorted problems with pregnancies.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=September 23, 1871|title=My Word on Abortion and Other Things|journal=Woodhull and Claflins Weekly}}</ref>  Her interest in eugenics might have been motivated by the profound intellectual impairment of her son.  She advocated, among other things, sex education, "marrying well," and pre-natal care as a way to bear healthier children and prevent mental and physical disease.  Her writings express views which are closer to the views of anarchist eugenicists, rather than the views of coercive eugenicists like [[Francis Galton|Sir Francis Galton]].  In 2006, publisher Michael W. Perry discovered writings which show that Woodhull supported the forcible sterilization of people who she considered unfit to breed. He published these writings in his book "Lady Eugenist".  He cited a ''New York Times'' article from 1927 in which she concurred with the ruling of the case ''[[Buck v. Bell]]''. This was in stark contrast to her earlier works in which she advocated social freedom and opposed governmental interference in matters of love and marriage.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Woodhull Martin died on June 9, 1927, at Norton Park in Bredon's Norton.<ref>{{cite news |title=Victoria Martin, Suffragist, Dies. Nominated for President of the United States as Mrs. Woodhull in 1872. Leader of Many Causes. Had Fostered Anglo-American Friendship Since She Became Wife of a Britisher ... |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/06/11/archives/vigtoria-martin-suffragist-dies-nominated-for-president-of-the.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 11, 1927|url-access=registration }}</ref>