Margaret Sanger's Battle For Birth Control

Photograph of Margaret Sanger 

Birth control was a highly controversial topic in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. However, in earlier years, abortion and other means of contraception had been legal and were not highly-contested.  The Roman Catholic Church held the belief that a fetus was not considered a living, human soul, until “quickening” took place in a woman’s body.  Quickening refers to the time when a woman can actually feel the fetus within her “take to life” and become animated. So long as an abortion was performed before quickening took place, there was no harm done.  However, many women from low socio-economic statuses did not have the money or means to have a legal and safe abortion. This led to the use of many herbal remedies which were often ineffective and could lead to dangerous side effects for both the mother and unborn fetus. The lack of effectiveness from such remedies would then lead the woman to try other remedies, including unsafe self-abortions with crude devices or striking one’s abdomen repeatedly in an attempt to produce a miscarriage. Once controversy finally began over the Catholic Church’s stance on “quickening” being used as a scientific and unemotional means of determining when life truly began, abortion eventually became illegal and highly frowned upon. Focus was then emphasized on other means of contraception to terminate unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. 

The government of European countries, such as France, became very concerned that their population was actually decreasing while abortion was legal. Both European countries as well as many citizens in the U.S. felt it was the responsibility of women to procreate in order to populate its country—much like considering it as a woman’s national duty. Concerns about women’s refusal at times to have babies began to grow, but moreover, it became very alarming about which women were choosing to limit how many children they wanted to have. 

Only white, middle, and upper class women could afford to have abortions or obtain contraception, leaving African Americans, immigrants, and the lower class to add to the population’s growth. This potentially threatened the country’s population of “good” genes and was seen as a threat to the status of their male counterparts and white positions of power and dominance. President Theodore Roosevelt shared this same vision, and 1894, actually quoted that women of "good stock,” meaning caucasian women of good class, who refused to have children were "race criminals." This is but one extreme example showing the far-reaching implications and attitudes of what was, and continues to be such a highly controversial subject even today.

Margaret Sanger was an iconic figure in the American reproductive rights movement. She was a selfless woman who stood up for what she believed in, knowing the consequences of what she could potentially go against. Margaret’s strongest belief was that a woman should have the right to control her body. She believed everyone should be able to decide when or whether or not to have children, and that abstinence should not be the sole path to take against procreation, and that women are just as entitled to sexual pleasure as men. Sanger had the theory that universal access to what she named, “birth control,” would reduce the need for abortion, as well as save the lives of the women and their children, lift families out of poverty, and help women gain their basic human rights.

Sanger's paper, "The Woman Rebel"

Sanger’s battle for family planning was unrelenting and focused. She was responsible for making it legal to publish and distribute information about sex and birth control to help educate those around her. She helped create access and the development of safe, effective, and affordable birth control for the poor, the minority, and immigrant women. 

Margaret Sanger's birth control movement and quest for “the pill” intersected the rise of the eugenics movement in America. Birth control was still not publicly accepted in society, some eugenicists believed birth control could be used as a tool for curbing procreation among the “weak" as previously mentioned. Sanger knew that relating birth control to eugenics idea would give her own movement legitimacy, and her first ally was formed. Eugenics was a dominant theme at birth control conferences, and Sanger spoke publicly of the need to put an end to breeding by the “unfit.” 

In the 1870s, the Comstock Laws had been placed which outlawed the distribution of birth control itself, along with information on it and devices. However, this didn't stop Sanger. In 1914, Sanger decided to start her own newspaper called “The Woman Rebel.” She used her paper to defy the Comstock laws and published all the information she could find about birth control.

During the winter of 1915, Margaret Sanger and her campaign for birth control began to become celebrated in the American press. A tour was launched to advocate for family planning. Margaret would speak to anyone who would listen — no discrimination whatsoever against those who needed the information, because this wasn't a movement to gain popularity, Sanger began this movement because she genuinely cared about the women she was talking to. 

Margaret and her supporters at the opening of the first birth control clinic in 1916

In 1916, Sanger decided to challenge the law once again. She had received a contribution from a woman who had heard her lecture, and she used it to open a clinic New York — the first birth control clinic in America, being only ten cents per consultation. However, the clinic remained open for a mere ten days until an undercover police agent caught and arrested Sanger and her supporters. Sanger was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to 30 days in jail, where she continued to educate her fellow inmates about birth control.

Margaret Sanger gets arrested

In 1937, the American Medical Association officially recognized birth control as an integral part of medical practice and education. North Carolina became the first state to recognize birth control as a public health measure and even provided contraceptive services to poor mothers through its public health program. 

Sanger and client at birth control clinic

Sanger drove the research and development leading to the mose first oral pills for contraception — birth control. By 1965, one out of every four married women in America under 45 had used the pill, and by 1967, nearly 13 million women in the world were using it, all leading up to this day and age, where 100 million women use the pill. Birth control made the sexual revolution safer for millions, and established family planning as a cultural norm in many other countries of the world. The development of contemporary contraception from the pill to today’s contraceptive patch, ring, and shot, was Margaret Sanger’s innovation. She had finally won the right for women to use contraception and developed a method that was nearly 100 percent effective. Nearly 130 years after her birth and more than 40 years after her death, Planned Parenthood has carried on Sanger’s lifelong struggle to defend the basic human right to decide when or whether to have a child — a right that had been suppressed worldwide for at least 5,000 years.

Works Cited

Brinkley, Alan. American History. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2007. Print. The textbook had one small section regarding birth control. It explains how Margaret Sanger thought that large families were one of the major causes of distress in poor communities. It explains how she persuaded the women mainly of the middle class by saying that sexual activity should be enjoyed without having to worry about procreation.

Goodman, Ellen. “Margaret Sanger: The Mother of Birth Control.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 26 Sept. 1979: n. pag. Google News. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19790926&id=-p5RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6W0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7003,3903753>. This newspaper article is a celebration and remembrance of Margaret Sanger and an overview of what she went through to recieve the reproductive rights we have today. It also mentions the effects of what has happened after the legalization of birth control. Primary Source. 

“Margaret Sanger — 20th Century Hero.” Planned Parenthood Federation Of America Inc.: n. pag. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/7513/9611/6635/Margaret_Sanger_Hero_1009.pdf>. This article gives background into Margaret Sanger’s life, as well as her beliefs and what drove her to act in her fight to legalize the distribution of birth control. It gives a timeline representing her growth in followers and how she affected and helped out other races. It also recognizes her time in jail and her legacy she left behind. 

The National Women’s History Museum. “Causes: The Birth Control Movement.” Women in the Progressive Era. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/birthcontrol.html>. This web page is based off an exhibit in the National Women’s History Museum and gives a quick overview of what caused the birth control movement and what the outcome was. This was one of the first sites I looked at so it gave me a good first glance into what I would be studying and a foundation of the general information. 

Peterson, Anna M. “From Commonplace to Controversial: The Different Histories of Abortion in Europe and the United States.” OSU.EDU. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. <http://origins.osu.edu/article/commonplace-controversial-different-histories-abortion-europe-and-united-states>. This website explained that people used to believe that a person didn’t have a soul until quickening occurred, so it was okay to abort a child as long as it hadn’t began to kick. Herbal contraceptives were used until abortive services (birth control etc.) had grown more available, but affording them was still an issue. Poor women immigrants continued to use herbal contraceptives and would go to doctors to induce abortions which would cost less than paying for an abortion. This helps me understand what was going through the peoples’ minds when it came to contraceptives and how they advanced. 

“The Pill.” PBS Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_eugenics.html>. This article relates birth control to eugenics and how it could help curb procreation among the so called “weak” (meaning people with birth defects or of different races). Sanger used eugenics as a tool to give her the upper hand and gain supporters/allies. 

Sanger, Margaret. “Selected Writings.” The Margaret Sanger Papers Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/documents/selected.php>. This is a primary source that contains newsletters that Margaret Sanger wrote. This trustworthy proof of exactly how she felt, not just what other people viewed her actions as. I can use this website to give myself insight and put myself into her shoes to understand how she felt during her battle for birth control.