First Image: Sanger photographed;Second Image: Sanger's self-published book "Family Limitation";Third Image: Sanger covers her mouth in protest at being told she can't speak about birth control (1929, Boston, MA).
Margaret Sanger was a woman intrinsically tied to the radical and controversial issue of birth control -- some may have said fanatical about the cause. Sanger became involved early in her life in women's issues, and she favored the idea of allowing women to decide their sexual freedom. Early in her career, she worked as an obstetrical nurse in “tenement districts of the lower East Side”1 where she was exposed to various crude and gruesome methods of self induced abortion. “Home remedies” like the use of turpentine and knitting needles proved to be effective but inherently dangerous in terminating pregnancies, yet showed Sanger the urgent need for contraception. By self-publishing a newspaper and book, she passionately advocated for improved contraceptive access, Sanger began an ambitious quest to bring the issue of birth control to the public's attention.
In August 1914 Margaret Sanger was indicted for violating postal obscenity laws in The Woman Rebel [her book]. Unwilling to risk imprisonment, she jumped bail in October and, using the alias "Bertha Watson," set sail for England via Canada.2
After her return, she decided to shift her lofty goals toward the direction of challenging the illegality on distribution of contraceptive services. Additionally, she sought to establish a similar medical clinic like the one she observed while away in Holland. On October 16th, 1916, she opened America's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn and was consequently tried and convicted.3 The appeal she made was denied, and her conviction was upheld; she served a sentence of thirty days in prison.
She relentlessly continued on-- In 1917, she prepared a silent film called “Birth Control.”4 New York authorities immediately confiscated the footage, yet that did not deter her. Widely known for her passionate displays of public advocating, Sanger “disarmed” audience members through her personal charm and persuasiveness.
Margaret Sanger made a powerful propaganda appeal when she pointed out the relation of birth control to the health and welfare of children... [She] also argued that birth control would eradicate poverty and its consequences. If the individual family and the nation achieved abundance all manners of social evils would disappear.5
Sanger fought through a considerable amount of opposition for the legalization of contraception. Controversy surrounding the progressive implementation of birth control methods were mainly induced by the objection that it was “unnatural,” and that physical devices like condoms, diaphragms, and sponges could cause “physical injury, nervous tension, or could leave women sterile”, and the “underlying fear of the promiscuity that it could permit.”6 The artificial ability of contraception to stifle the “natural”, God-given privilege of childbearing seemed incredibly stilted to many conservatives. “Gradually, however, changing attitudes toward the family, women, and sexuality closed the gap between private practice and public repudiation of birth control.”7 Antifeminists argued that a woman's God-given role was so immutable that changing it was preposterous and corrupted a woman's “maternal and connubial function.”8
While there were two polar stances on this issue, the undeniable revolution of the woman's role in society influenced women's attitudes. Up until the early 20th century, women remained somewhat ignorant of the extent of their sexual freedoms. The birth control movement induced an evolution of thought; one that promoted feminism and a rise in women's self-ownership.
1)Peter C, Engelman A History of the Birth Control Movement in America, Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2011, pg. 3782
2)Esther, Katz, "Sanger, Margaret", Chap. 8, In Oxford Companion to United States History, American National Biography Online ed., 1: Oxford University Press, paragraph 4
3)Peter C, Engelman A History of the Birth Control Movement in America, Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2011, pg. 3783
4)Esther, Katz, "Sanger, Margaret", Chap. 8, In Oxford Companion to United States History, American National Biography Online ed., 1: Oxford University Press, paragraph 8-9
5)David M., Kennedy. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970, pg 109
6)Linda, Gordon, "Voluntary Motherhood; the Beginnings of Feminist Birth Control Ideas in the United States," Feminist Studies 1, no. 3/4, Special Double Issue: Women's History (Winter - Spring, 1973): 5-22, pg. 7
7)David M., Kennedy. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970, pg. 137
8)David M., Kennedy. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970, pg. 61
In August 1914 Margaret Sanger was indicted for violating postal obscenity laws in The Woman Rebel [her book]. Unwilling to risk imprisonment, she jumped bail in October and, using the alias "Bertha Watson," set sail for England via Canada.2
After her return, she decided to shift her lofty goals toward the direction of challenging the illegality on distribution of contraceptive services. Additionally, she sought to establish a similar medical clinic like the one she observed while away in Holland. On October 16th, 1916, she opened America's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn and was consequently tried and convicted.3 The appeal she made was denied, and her conviction was upheld; she served a sentence of thirty days in prison.
She relentlessly continued on-- In 1917, she prepared a silent film called “Birth Control.”4 New York authorities immediately confiscated the footage, yet that did not deter her. Widely known for her passionate displays of public advocating, Sanger “disarmed” audience members through her personal charm and persuasiveness.
Margaret Sanger made a powerful propaganda appeal when she pointed out the relation of birth control to the health and welfare of children... [She] also argued that birth control would eradicate poverty and its consequences. If the individual family and the nation achieved abundance all manners of social evils would disappear.5
Sanger fought through a considerable amount of opposition for the legalization of contraception. Controversy surrounding the progressive implementation of birth control methods were mainly induced by the objection that it was “unnatural,” and that physical devices like condoms, diaphragms, and sponges could cause “physical injury, nervous tension, or could leave women sterile”, and the “underlying fear of the promiscuity that it could permit.”6 The artificial ability of contraception to stifle the “natural”, God-given privilege of childbearing seemed incredibly stilted to many conservatives. “Gradually, however, changing attitudes toward the family, women, and sexuality closed the gap between private practice and public repudiation of birth control.”7 Antifeminists argued that a woman's God-given role was so immutable that changing it was preposterous and corrupted a woman's “maternal and connubial function.”8
While there were two polar stances on this issue, the undeniable revolution of the woman's role in society influenced women's attitudes. Up until the early 20th century, women remained somewhat ignorant of the extent of their sexual freedoms. The birth control movement induced an evolution of thought; one that promoted feminism and a rise in women's self-ownership.
1)Peter C, Engelman A History of the Birth Control Movement in America, Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2011, pg. 3782
2)Esther, Katz, "Sanger, Margaret", Chap. 8, In Oxford Companion to United States History, American National Biography Online ed., 1: Oxford University Press, paragraph 4
3)Peter C, Engelman A History of the Birth Control Movement in America, Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2011, pg. 3783
4)Esther, Katz, "Sanger, Margaret", Chap. 8, In Oxford Companion to United States History, American National Biography Online ed., 1: Oxford University Press, paragraph 8-9
5)David M., Kennedy. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970, pg 109
6)Linda, Gordon, "Voluntary Motherhood; the Beginnings of Feminist Birth Control Ideas in the United States," Feminist Studies 1, no. 3/4, Special Double Issue: Women's History (Winter - Spring, 1973): 5-22, pg. 7
7)David M., Kennedy. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970, pg. 137
8)David M., Kennedy. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970, pg. 61