The Birth of Birth Control: An essay on Margaret Sanger
Who was Margaret Sanger, the name doesn't seem to ring any bells, but if you are a woman who believes it is your right to have access to birth control, you should get to know her. Margaret Sanger was the leader in making contraception available to women. Born in 1879 she was an advocate for women's issues from an early age born of Michael Higgins who was active in the cause of labor reform and social equality, Margaret quickly took on his "freethinking" attitude.In 1914 she wrote a magazine called The Woman Rebel. At that time was against the law to import or distribute any device, medicine or information designed to prevent conception or induce abortion. As a nurse Sanger was also barred from giving this information out to patients. She was indicted for this "crime" but her case was dismissed in 1916. In that same year she established the first birth control clinic and was immediately charged with "maintaining a public nuisance". But that didn't stop her! While serving thirty days in the penitentiary she organized a school for fellow inmates. That was just the beginning; she won an appeal making it legal for physicians to give birth-
Sanger went to all length to get her message across. Not only the legal issues she met with mentioned above, but as a result of a charge by the government of nine counts of breaking obscenity laws, she had to flee to London for two years, leaving her husband and children behind. Of course she used this time to her favor by researching and gaining political connections. It seemed that her philosophy was already shared by many in Europe at the time so she became familiar with the advocates of the birth control issues in Europe to use not only to defend herself, but to strengthen her advocacy for the issue in the United States. The following is a quote of Sanger from one of her issues of The Woman Rebel: What was her motive? Sanger believed that women have a right to make decisions about their body. She believed that the improvement of women's lives depended on it. She had seen so many women suffering and dieing from bearing too many children, knowing there was a way to stop this suffering, she new that her destiny was to help all women and give them a choice. It would be a long hard road with much opposition, but by 1936 a Supreme cou
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Approximate Word count = 774
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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