MARGARET SANGER
THE BIRTH CONTROL MOVEMENT
"I cannot refrain from saying that women must come to recognize there
is some function of womanhood other than being a child - bearing machine."
                                        - Margaret Sanger


Margaret Sanger (1879 - 1966)
SANGER'S BIOGRAPHY   

Margaret Higgins Sanger was born in Corning, New York on September 14th,1879.  Margaret was the sixth child out
of eleven.  Her mother, Anne Higgins, passed at the age of fifty from Tuberculosis.  Margaret blamed her mother's early
death on her frequent pregnancies.  She wanted to make a change and so attended Claverack College and Hudson River
Institute in 1986 and later on began her education at the White Plains Hospital nursing program in 1900.  Two years
later she married and had three children in the suburb of New York City, Hastings. In 1910, the family moved to New York
City.  There her husband, William Sanger, and she joined a group of intellectuals and activists.  She also joined the Women's
Committee of the New York Socialist party and helped  fight for labor actions. With everything Sanger was involved in, she
was shocked by the fact that women were having more children than they could handle, not only materially but physically as well..
HER MOVEMENTS AND IMPACT ON SOCIETY


Timeline of Sanger's Achievements




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In 1912, Sanger gave up her nursing career to pursue educating women on the topic of birth control.  Her movement's efforts had changed the focus from radical feminism to middle class values. However, the Comstock Act of 1873 prohibited the use and distribution of birth control information and devices.  And so she focused her career on sex education.  Also in 1912, she began writing for a colounm in the New York Call, "What Every Girl Should Know." These series of articles were to educate the women and to help in family limitation or unwanted pregnancies.  Sanger had also discussed sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea.  It was then when she experienced her first battle with censors, by others "calling it obscene."  Despite her efforts her main concern at that time was family limitation.  She saw many poor women suffering from frequent "childbirth, miscarriage and abortion."  Her efforts were to free these women form their suffering physically and economically.

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Sanger began to challenge the Comstock Law of 1837 and started to write The Woman Rebel.  It was a monthly that addressed issues regarding the right to practice birth control.  She was later indicted for these so called "obscenities," and posted bail and then fled to Europe.  The indicment was dropped and following this incident, Sanger and her sister Ethyl Brynne  opened the first bith control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn.  After nine days of operating, the clinic was raided and she was arrested and spent thirty days in jail, however that did not stop her mission. 
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After WWI, there was an extreme suppression of the radical left, and so, Sanger decided to help win more support and in 1917, she started a new monthly called the Birth Control Review.  Following that in 1921, she led a campaign on education in order to gain the much needed support for birth control.  The campaign also supported the American Birth Control League.  The ABCL was formed to offer education and encourage legislative reform.  Later in 1923 the first, legal,. doctor-run birth control clinic was opened. 

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One of the most important acheivements Sanger had accomplished was Planned Parenthood. In 1939 Sanger founded the American Birth Control Foundation.  Later in 1942 it was called the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.  Her role in the birth control movement had a huige impact on society.  Doctors finally had the rigth to prescribe birth control to their patients, and families had sources to help with their planning.  In addition, Sanger went abroad and founded the International Planned Parenthood Federation.<><><>
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If it weren't for Sanger's efforts women would not have the freedom they have today.  Birth control allows a woman to be IN CONTROL of her body.  Not only is that a sense of liberation, but it also aids women to assess their lives and help in family planining.  Her movements have allowed women to go above and beyond what an expecation is for a woman.  "I cannot refrain from saying that women must come to recognize there is some function of womanhood other than being a child - bearing machine."  With her establishing these organizations throughout the 1900's - 1950's, Sanger has given women a voice and a choice.<><><>
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<><><>        <><>Related Links:
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<><><><><>        TIME 100 Margaret Sanger
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<><><><><>        The Margaret Sanger Papers Projects
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