Margaret Sanger Struggles Analysis

Today, the availability of birth control is taken for granted. There was a time, not long passed, during which the subject was illegal (“Margaret Sanger,” 2013, p.1). That did not stop the resilient leader of the birth control movement. Margaret Sanger was a nurse and women’s activist. While working as a nurse, Sanger treated many women who had suffered from unsafe abortions or tried to self-induce abortion (p.1). Seeing this devastation and noting that it was mainly low income women suffering from these problems, she was inspired to dedicate her life to educating women on family planning—even though the discussion of which was highly illegal at the time (p.1). She was often in trouble with

Thesis: Margaret Sanger changed the world by rallying for the availability and use of contraceptives for all women.

Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement highlighted a variety of important issues. These issues include women’s right to make decisions privately versus the right of a community to regulate moral behavior; the ethnic demographics of the American people; the ability of women to control their own physical destinies by limiting family size; and the idea that small families were the way to keep the American dream alive. The debate over birth control spoke to personal and political issues, which poses the question: Was birth control merely a matter of individual choice, or was it about power, wealth, opportunity and similar issues? Birth control was not merely a technique to expand the realm of personal freedom; it grew out of a radical

Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age

The early twentieth century was a turning point in American history-especially in regards to the acquisition of women's rights. While the era was considered to be prosperous and later thought to be a happy-go-lucky time, in actuality, it was a time of grave social conflict and human suffering (Parish, 110). Among those who endured much suffering were women. As Margaret Sanger found out, women, especially those who were poor, had no choice regarding pregnancy. The only way not to get pregnant was by not having sex- a choice that was almost always the husband's. This was even more true in the case of lower-class men for whom, 'sex was the poor man's only luxury' (Douglas, 31). As a nurse who assisted in delivering

"A free race cannot be born" and no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"(Sanger A 35). Margaret Sanger (1870-1966)said this in one of her many controversial papers. The name of Margaret Sanger and the issue of birth control have virtually become synonymous. Birth control and the work of Sanger have done a great deal to change the role of woman in society, relationships between men and woman, and the family. The development and spread of knowledge of birth control gave women sexual freedom for the first time, gave them an individual

     In addition to the articles she composed, Margaret Sanger decided to make sexual protection an option for all people. Previously, contraceptives and spermicides were only distributed to those who had information on the matter and access to them (Margaret 1). Sanger was past 80 when she saw the first marketing of a contraceptive pill, which she had helped develop, although legal change was slow. It took until 1965, a year before her death, for the Supreme Court to approve the use of contraception, but Sanger had accomplished a goal (Margaret 1). Now, contraceptives were available to all women, in all walks of life, regardless of their financial situations. In her mind, poor mental development was largely the result of poverty, overpopulation and the lack of attention to children. This was definitely one of the reasons why Sanger desired to make protection available to lower class citizens, along with the wealthy.

Sanger began to notice that when pregnancies did not result in miscarriage, back-alley abortion, or death, they usually resulted in large families that were very unfortunate and could not provide the conditions needed for young children and families ( Kauffman). Sanger was in nursing when she witnessed a wife dying from a self induced abortion ( Mikula). Nursing is where she acquired knowledge first hand of poor mothers vulnerability and desperation ( O’Reilly). Sanger then began publishing a pamphlet titled “Family Limitation”, and she also published a newspaper “The Woman Rebel” ( O’Reilly). Then, she filed and ex post facto appeal claiming that the Comstock Laws violate both the federal and state constitutions because these laws prevented her from being able to distribute what she had wrote ( Mikula).

Many also believed it was the man’s decision as to how many children his wife should have. Sanger continued her quest opening a birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916; one year later, the authorities arrested her for giving contraceptives to immigrant women (Bowles, 2011). At first glance it appears that Sanger had good intentions. “Others criticized her for involvement with eugenics, which was a scientific movement in which its practitioners advocated the notion that all mental and physical "abnormalities" were linked to hereditary and, with selective breeding, could be eliminated. They questioned whether or not Sanger's insistence on birth control and abortion was in fact a way to limit the growth of ethnic populations” (Bowles, 2011). “Of course, her activism put her directly at odds with law-enforcement officials and the Catholic Church, but little discussed is the actual extent to which her early Marxism guided much of what she managed to achieve. Her good friends included ultra-radicals like John Reed and Emma Goldman, and the truth is that Margaret’s feminism, and her support for eugenic ‘sexual science’, were both simply part-and-parcel of her own unique Marxist vision. Humanitarianism, per se, had little to do with what motivated Margaret Sanger” (Spooner, 2005). Sanger’s actions and motivations are a controversial topic that have been analyzed and debated for years. “According to her New York Times obituary,

Margaret Sanger was not only a birth control activist, she was also an author, a nurse and a sex educator and many of her influences for being an activist come from her family. Born on September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York, she was the sixth of eleven children born into a poor Roman Catholic family (Sanger 14). Her mother had various miscarriages, which Sanger believed affected her mother’s health, and was a devoted Roman Catholic who believed one should conform to the rules while her father was a free thinker who supported women’s suffrage. Sanger attended Claverack College and Hudson River Institute in 1896 and went to study nursing at White Plains Hospital four years later (51). She later married an architect by the name of William Sanger in 1902 and had three children, one of which, her daughter, Peggy, later passed at age five (86). In 1914, however, the couple separated, then divorced in 1921 and a year later Margaret Sanger married an oil magnate by the name of James Henry Noah Slee until 1943 when he passed away. Sanger was always an advocate for birth control, she was an activist her entire life and wanted to help women have their rights. The Birth Control Movement began around 1910 and Sanger was instrumental in the legalization of it. Margaret Sanger devoted her life to help make women’s contraception legal and didn’t stop despite all the obstacles in her way and she faced many consequences because of this. Margaret Sanger took a stand for women 's rights by

“No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”

Women are taking charge as they are going against the traditional views in which they call themselves flappers. This generation of women are turning against everything of the traditional ways. These woman are going out partying, drinking, and smoking. They have a shoulder length hair cut and dresses that go up to their knees in which are showing a lot of skin. To do the activities that they enjoy and want to do, they disobey their fathers and husbands and go out having fun. Since birth control is now invented by Margaret Sanger, many women don't want to have children in which is changing the entire view of society. Everything the traditional women was, those flappers are the total opposite. Although they do go out partying and having fun, they

Although there are many supporters of Margaret Sanger’s efforts, there are also people who combat these efforts by mentioning Sanger’s original mission which was to use “birth control as a means of reducing genetically transmitted mental and physical defects” as mentioned in Jennifer Chesworth’s article entitled “Margaret Sanger” (2005). Chesworth also mentioned how different her views were from that of Nazi Germany, which was mostly based on “reactionary eugenics”. One of Margaret’s most popular projects, which was co-founded with W.E.B. Du Bois, was “The Negro Project”. Due to segregation, birth control clinics in the South were closed to black women. The goal of this project was to open birth control clinics staffed by black doctors and nurses that also doubled as education centers for these women (Gandy 2015).

In 1913 Sanger began her long journey of advocating for women’s rights to birth control. Federal and state obscenity laws (18 U.S.C. § 1464- Broadcasting obscene language, 18 U.S.C.

Back then life itself wasn’t easy and having countless kids didn’t help either. In today’s society birth control has become such a critical variable when it comes to the everyday lives of these hard working mothers. In conclusion, Margaret Sanger can be seen as an icon for all the hard work and braveness it took for something as enormous as this to happen and us women will forever be