The Fight For Contraceptives By Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger was a controversial and historical nurse. She lived during a time of revolutionary change when the women’s rights movement was in full motion. Born in 1879, to a large impoverished family, she was the sixth of eleven children. Sanger was part of a family of devoted Catholics. During that time it was a common practice for women to birth as many children as possible. As a result, she was a witness to the effects of diseases, miscarriages, and multiple pregnancies that eventually led to her mother’s premature death. This had a significant impact on her ideologies. She eventually became known for advocating women’s reproductive rights and founding what is now known as Planned Parenthood.

Sanger is most well known as being the founder of Planned Parenthood, but most people don’t know the true Margaret Sanger. Sanger was the leader of the Feminist Party. Using her influences from the Nazi ideology, she set out to commit genocide against the poor and minorities. She went about this by creating Planned Parenthood and putting their locations in primarily poor neighborhoods. Planned Parenthood is a place where poor women can get free or low cost abortions. The ulterior motive for providing abortions at Planned Parenthood, was for this genocide that Sanger wanted.

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 in spite of the Comstock Act of 1873, was a feminist and advocate of eugenics. 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 American women to be empowered with the flexibility to choose when to procreate, thus allowing women the economic ability to escape oppression. As a result of such empowerment, I will argue that the speech’s sententious delivery of the morality of birth control use was causal to the increased demographic of women with professional degrees.

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

"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

     Although she had met her goal of legalizing birth control, Margaret Sanger still desired to assist women who were already pregnant but didn’t wish to keep the child. After returning from a national tour in 1916, Sanger opened the nation's first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn (Katz 1). This, however, was a minor advancement considering that the clinic was raided in its first nine days of operation and she was taken to prison. The

Margaret Sanger, a birth control activist. Born on September 14, 1879 Sanger was one of eleven children born (National Women’s History Museum). Other than the children born, Sanger’s mother had seven miscarriages (National Women’s History Museum). Sanger’s family lived in poverty as Sanger’s father preferred to drink and talk politics than keep a steady job (National Women’s History Museum). When Sanger was 19 Sanger’s mother died of Tuberculosis (National Women’s History Museum). Over

Sanger made huge changes in how the society viewed women at that time period. She was influential to women who felt like their life revolved around giving birth only. She also gave many women birth control options which allowed them the freedom of sexuality in everyday life. Sanger advocated and fought for women's rights throughout her life. Her determination and hard work gave women social rights, which later led to their right to control their own body through birth control.She advocated repeatedly that without birth control women will never be free (Sanger).

Sanger was a birth control activist, sex educator, and nurse who spent her whole life fighting for women’s rights. When Sanger was younger, she spent time working as a nurse in poor, immigrant populated neighborhoods. She helped young women suffering the side effects of back-alley abortions or self-terminated pregnancies. Wanting to save women from the pain and possible infertility, Margaret began her fight to make birth control available to women. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and established the American Birth Control League, which was the predecessor to todays Planned Parenthood Federation of

Margaret Sanger is a birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger gave a famous speech on March 30th, 1925 titled “The Children’s Era” which is part of the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference. It took place at a public meeting in Scottish Rite Hall in New York. She believes that the twentieth century should be the era of the child where the current generation should welcome children into a healthy and happy world. She believes that parents should be educated through a series of tests to help them understand and realise what it is like to be a parent and what all it takes. I believe this is a good speech because Sanger convy’s her readers by the use of repetition, the use of an analogy, her use of facts, and credibility to other sources.

She was born on September 14, 1879as Margaret Higgins to Michael and Anne Higgins in New York who were Catholic but her father eventually became Atheists. Margaret became a nurse after graduating college. She married William Sanger and had two sons. Sanger devoted her life to helping other in need specifically women in poverty whom she saw have frequent miscarriages, child birth and abortions. Educating women on contraception and sex education was deemed obscene and against law leading her into trouble with the law. The first birth control center was open in Brooklyn, New York on October 16, 1916. After serving jail time and other run in's with the law Margaret Sanger with the help of others succeeded in having a law passed on 1918 that physicians were allowed to prescribe contraception and in 1960 the first birth control pill was approved by the FDA and Sanger died a year later. Margaret Sangeris credited as being the founder of the American Birth Control League known in today’s time a Planned Parenthood. She strived to help women in poverty regarding issues with maternal and child health.

Birth control up to this global has been a topic of contention. Abortion is still illegal in many countries, and the issue is still up for debate. Birth control and contraceptive pills, however, are common aspects of family planning. These have been helpful for not only families but also national governments in their bid to control population growth. To achieve this, however, down history, there have been numerous efforts by quite remarkable individuals who dedicated their lives to fight for women rights and birth control. Among such personalities is Margaret Sanger who is widely regarded as the mother of contraceptives and birth control (Watson). It is through the efforts of this fearless woman in collaboration with other like-minded individuals that contraceptive pills came to be and their subsequent legalization. As evidenced by her numerous campaigns based on feminism and women rights, she fought a hard battle in the process of legalizing birth control. This study paper investigates and establishes various aspects of her life and the subsequent achievements of her efforts.

In the early 20th century, a crusader for female reproductive rights, Margaret Sanger, began a movement to make birth control widely available so that women could limit the size of their families. She introduced the idea that birth control was vital to the well-being of women and their families. On the other hand, some people thought that it was an immoral affront to God. Birth control is important to the achievement of women's rights. With the help of Margaret Sanger and her leadership skills, birth control is used to demonstrate female rights, control family sizes, and prevent the births of unwanted children.

The most significant events that began the revolution to making contraception more accessible began with the influence and hard work of a woman named Margaret Sanger in the early 1900’s. Margaret Sanger and her sisters started what was known as the first birth control clinic in 1916. This was significant because it fueled the upbringing of what we have today known as Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger was a nurse that personally experienced and witnessed the effect that a lack of contraceptives can have on women and mothers everywhere. It was her hard work and research on birth control “safety and effectiveness” that helped to cut down the terrible experiences with birth that several women had to face. Her work helped to decrease the number of miscarriages and abortions, as well as made it so women can have better control on how many children they gave birth to, which ultimately helped families everywhere financially. Margaret Sanger, over time, helped the view on birth control change from being “obscene” to being a necessary thing. Her movement began the establishments of Planned Parenthoods everywhere.

Continuing on, women in the Roaring Twenties also faced the problem of being uninformed on birth control. Margaret Sanger, a nurse who was moved by the despair caused by the unwanted pregnancies and children she witnessed daily, almost single-handedly began the birth control movement in the early 1900s (Streissguth 38). Sanger, eager to learn more and do something to help this cause, traveled abroad to Europe to visit birth control clinics there, bringing back knowledge and new ideas with her (Takeuchi-Demirci