Essay On Birth Control

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

Birth control has been the topic of discussion lately. Individuals have been debating if birth control should be able to be received over the counter. That is up to the Food and Drug Administration because they are the ones who have to approve or disapprove. Drug companies and law makers should work together to change the rules and allow woman and teenage girls to have more easily acces to acquire birth control.

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

In 1917, Margaret Sanger was arrested for distributing contraception pessirie to a immigrant women. Margaret Sanger, was a nurse, mother, sex educator, writer and most importantly an activist. Sanger, fought for women’s rights which one of the main one was to legalize birth control in America. During the process of fighting Sanger establish the American Birth Control League, now called Planned Parenthood. Sanger fund money to Grisworld the created of the hormonal birth control pill the dream of Sanger. Sanger, “wanted to have it all, and was birth control as the necessary condition for the resolution of their often conflicting needs.” (Chesler 25). Birth control has always been a colossal issue since it was invention in the 1960s by Griswold and has remained and extraordinarily controversial topic since. Therefore, if teenagers get their parent’s consent for birth control, teens will still manage to get their way and have sex, parent will think they are unhealthy, and last some parent would want their female teenager conserve until marriage. Meanwhile, if they do not get the parental consent, teenage will be encouraged to be more sexually active, female teenage will know they are safe on not getting pregnant, and it will encourage female be promiscuous.

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 starts by arguing that controlling reproduction by practicing birth control would lead to women 's freedom. Once she reproduces she cannot get away with the responsibility handed upon her which causes her to sacrifice her freedom for a long period of time. Only she has the choice of freeing her from the burden of being a mother. A free country cannot be born with a mother who has the responsibility of a child. Women cannot be considered free until she controls her own body and has the choice to become a mother or not (Sanger).

Public discussions of birth control were criminalized under the Comstock Act of 1873 because people believed it was immoral. Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 despite the Comstock Act of 1873, was a feminist and advocate. After serving prison time, Sanger returned publicly and illegally with drive to present a strong argument that defended the moral use of birth control. Prior to her morally controversial 1921 speech, Sanger was arrested in New York for her intent to advocate public knowledge pertaining to birth control. Although the ethical nature of using birth control is still controversial in America, Margaret Sanger’s 1921 speech “A Moral Necessity for Birth Control” was undoubtedly a catalyst for

Sanger’s word choice enabled her to place herself in the audience, and reach out to the listeners and show she was one of them. With her statement, Sanger was conveying to the spectators that the life of everyone needed to be bettered, and the intelligence that was growing needed to be used in a way that benefited themselves and others, starting with the enhancement of birth control knowledge in all social classes. Though the speech is about the morality of birth control, it also spruces up the fact that many churches did not allow birth control, and how lack of knowledge to women about this contraception was unfair (Sanger, par. 15). Though this issue was still standing, Sanger allowed her words to flow into the ears of eager listeners, place herself into the slot of an average citizen, and show how persuasion can be used to manipulate others.

"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.

Oral contraceptive has been a controversial topic for years. Oral contraceptives are a common form of birth control. Birth control is used to prevent pregnancy by blocking a male’s sperm from fertilizing a female’s egg. Women take birth control to prevent pregnancy. Also, teen women can prevent unwanted pregnancies by having access to over the counter birth control pills. Birth control pills should be available without a prescription.

Margaret Sanger starts by arguing that controlling reproduction by practicing birth control would lead to women's freedom. Once she reproduces she cannot get away with the responsibility handed upon her which causes her to sacrifice her freedom for a long period of time. Only she has the choice of freeing her from the burden of being a mother. A free country cannot be born with a mother who has the responsibility of a child. Women cannot be considered free until she controls her own body and has the choice to become a mother or not (Sanger).

Rhetorical questions are key in Sanger’s speech as not all those at the conference completely agree with Sanger’s stance on birth control. There are undoubtedly people in the crowd and at the conference for the sheer purpose of disagreeing with her and her colleagues. She stays on top of their rebuttals with a barrage of rhetorical questions. Not only does she use rhetorical questions to address counter arguments, but Sanger also uses questions like “Why has so little been accomplished?—in spite of all our acknowledged love of children, all our generosity, all our good-will, all the enormous spending of millions on philanthropy and charities, all our warm hearted sentiment, all our incessant activity and social consciousness? Why?” to instill into her listeners’ minds the idea that even after all of these efforts, the children’s lives must still be made

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,

In order to break free from the shackles of predestined breeding, Sanger suggests that women “assert their right to voluntary motherhood.” Through thinking on their own, women can be in command of their own bodies and in turn determine how to live their lives. While this may seem absurd to a modern mind, this was truly innovative and dangerous for Sanger to suggest. She was challenging traditions that dated back hundreds of years. “Even as birth control is the means by