Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger

Who Was Margaret Sanger?

Margaret Sanger, an influential activist and social reformer, played a pivotal role in advocating for women’s reproductive rights in the early 20th century. In 1910, she relocated to Greenwich Village, where she initiated a publication that championed a woman’s right to birth control—a term she famously coined. Facing obscenity laws, Sanger was compelled to leave the country until 1915. The following year, she opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. Throughout her life, Sanger remained a steadfast advocate for women’s rights, passing away in 1966.

Early Life

Margaret Higgins was born on September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York, as the second of eleven children in a Roman Catholic, working-class Irish American family. Her mother, Anne, suffered multiple miscarriages, which Sanger believed adversely affected her mother’s health, contributing to her untimely death at the age of 40 (though some reports suggest she was 50). The family’s financial struggles were exacerbated by her father, Michael, an Irish stonemason, who prioritized drinking and political discussions over steady employment.

Seeking a brighter future, Sanger attended Claverack College and the Hudson River Institute in 1896. Four years later, she pursued nursing studies at White Plains Hospital. In 1902, she married architect William Sanger, and together they had three children. The couple moved to New York City in 1910, settling in the bohemian neighborhood of Greenwich Village, which was known for its radical political climate. There, they became acquainted with prominent figures such as writer Upton Sinclair and anarchist Emma Goldman. Sanger joined the Women’s Committee of the New York Socialist Party and the Liberal Club, and she actively supported the Industrial Workers of the World union, participating in various strikes.

Sex Education Pioneer

Sanger began her campaign for women’s sexual education in 1912 through a newspaper column titled “What Every Girl Should Know.” Simultaneously, she worked as a nurse in the Lower East Side, a predominantly impoverished immigrant neighborhood. Through her nursing work, Sanger encountered numerous women who had suffered from back-alley abortions or had attempted to terminate their pregnancies. Disturbed by the unnecessary suffering these women endured, she became a vocal advocate for accessible birth control information and contraceptives. Sanger envisioned a “magic pill” to control pregnancy, famously stating, “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”

In 1914, Sanger launched a feminist publication called The Woman Rebel, which promoted the right to birth control. This monthly magazine quickly placed her in legal jeopardy, as it was illegal to distribute information on contraception through the mail. The Comstock Act of 1873, supported by Anthony Comstock, defined “obscene and immoral materials” to include publications, devices, and medications related to contraception and abortion. Violating this act could result in a five-year prison sentence.

To avoid incarceration, Sanger fled to England, where she immersed herself in the women’s movement and researched various birth control methods, including diaphragms, which she later smuggled back into the United States. By this time, Sanger had separated from her husband, and their subsequent divorce allowed her to embrace the concept of free love, engaging in affairs with figures such as psychologist Havelock Ellis and writer H. G. Wells.

Contraception Advocacy: The Legacy of Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger returned to the United States in October 1915 after the charges against her had been dismissed. Seizing the opportunity, she embarked on a national tour to promote birth control, a term she famously coined. In 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. Just nine days after its launch, she and her staff, including her sister Ethel, were arrested during a police raid on the Brooklyn clinic. They faced charges for providing information on contraception and fitting women for diaphragms. Sanger and her sister served 30 days in jail for violating the Comstock Law. Despite the conviction, Sanger appealed, ultimately achieving a significant victory for the birth control movement. Although the court did not overturn the original verdict, it made a crucial exception in the existing law, allowing doctors to prescribe contraception for medical reasons.

Around this time, Sanger published the inaugural issue of The Birth Control Review. In 1921, she established the American Birth Control League, which would eventually evolve into today’s Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Sanger served as its president until 1928. Two years later, she opened the first legal birth control clinic in the United States, named the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. It was during this period that Sanger remarried, tying the knot with oil businessman J. Noah H. Slee, who provided substantial funding for her social reform initiatives.

To further her cause through legal channels, Sanger founded the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control in 1929. This committee aimed to ensure that doctors could freely distribute birth control. A significant legal milestone was achieved in 1936 when the U.S. Court of Appeals permitted the importation of birth control devices and related materials into the country.

Controversy Surrounding Sanger

Despite her extensive advocacy, Sanger was not without controversy. She faced criticism for her association with eugenics, a scientific discipline focused on improving the human species through selective breeding. Her grandson, Alexander Sanger, chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council, noted, “She believed that women wanted their children to be free of poverty and disease, that women were natural eugenicists, and that birth control, which could limit the number of children and improve their quality of life, was the panacea to accomplish this.” While some of Sanger’s views were reflective of her time, including support for sterilization of the mentally ill, her core principle remained steadfast: “Every child should be a wanted child.”

Later Years and Death

Sanger briefly stepped out of the public eye, opting to reside in Tucson, Arizona. However, her retirement was short-lived, as she continued her work on birth control initiatives internationally, particularly in Europe and Asia. In 1952, she founded the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Sanger, still in pursuit of a “magic pill,” enlisted the help of Gregory Pincus, a leading expert in human reproduction, in the early 1950s. Financial backing for this research came from Katharine McCormick, an heiress of the International Harvester fortune. This collaboration resulted in the development of Enovid, the first oral contraceptive, which received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 1960.

Sanger lived to witness a landmark decision for reproductive rights in 1965 when the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that birth control was legal for married couples. She passed away on September 6, 1966, in a nursing home in Tucson, Arizona. Today, numerous women’s health clinics across the United States bear Sanger’s name, honoring her enduring contributions to women’s rights and the birth control movement.