Margaret Sanger: The Fight for Birth Control

Margaret Sanger 

The medical field has always been seen as more of a male profession up until recent years.  Even more so, women have been seen in the role of just being a nurse, who can do very little except assist the male doctors.  One of the biggest fights that women have had in the medical field pertain to the information and services provided about contraceptives and birth control.  Margaret Sanger, the key woman when discussing birth control, helped make this idea about contraceptives not just a discussion but a reality.  She started this movement to have information and services more readily available for women who are in need.  In a time when so many women were fighting just to have the right to vote many people forget that the battle for birth control was also heating up in a world where men had the final say.

 Sanger was born in 1879 when the Comstock Act was high in power across America.  The Comstock laws stated that there will be no circulation or trade of obscene literature and articles of immoral nature.  This served as the starting point for Sangers' fight for contraceptive rights around the world.  She was a nurse that would help women who had back-alley abortions done or tried to self-terminate themselves.  While she was providing women in need with medical attention she started to realize that assisting them would only go so far.  Sanger started writing a column called, "What Every Girl Should Know."  From writing this column, a warrant was sent out for Sangers arrest for violating the Comstock laws.  Instead of facing up to five years in jail, Sanger fled to England, where she started educating the women of England on contraceptives and eventually smuggled over diaphragms .  Sanger was arrested in 1916 for opening the first birth control clinic, and as The American Experience article mentioned this arrest would not deter further advances.  From her arrest there was an advance made towards providing birth control to women.  The court had decided that Sangers charges would still remain the same, but they would make an exception in the existing law and allow doctors to provide women with birth control for medical reasons only.

Sanger continued her fight against federal and state laws prohibiting birth control.  She also started thinking of a 'magic pill', which as we all can assume has now turned into the standard form of birth control that most women use.  Sanger started many different organizations relating to reproductive and women's health.  She started the American Birth Control League in 1921 and a few years later started the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control.  From her smaller organizations came the one that we all know of today which is Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood is now one of the most known organizations to provide birth control and information about womans health.  They are also known for providing abortions and other services for women who are in need of options other than motherhood.  When discussing abortion Sanger was very amendment that this should be an option for all women because of personal reasons relating to her own mother.  Her mother died from tuberculosis and Sanger blames the 11 pregnancies and seven miscarriages for her young death.  A quote from Sanger presented in an article on Biography states, "every child should be a wanted child."  This pushed her desire to provide females with ample information and birth control resources.

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Through Sanger's work to advocate for birth control we can see these issues start to rise up again in our modern age.  Just recently the Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh referred to birth control, during his confirmation hearing, as abortion-inducing drugs.  This goes against everything that Margaret Sanger was striving for in the 20th century.  Personally, I feel as though Margaret Sanger should be seen as a great female warrior because of all the work that she did for women specifically.  Without birth control our world would be completely different and it takes away the right we have to control our own bodies.  By a Supreme Court nominee stating that the pill is some how linked to abortion is entirely ignorant.  I believe that Sangers work for health equality and advocacy for birth control rights was a large part of why we have the rights that we have today.  I think that she is inspiring to hear about and realize everything that she went through to change laws and overall change womans history.

"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." -Margaret Sanger

Sources

Biography.com Editors. “Margaret Sanger.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017.

Sanger, Margaret. What Every Girl Should Know. 1916, archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/AmRad/whateverygirl1920.pdf.

PBS. “Margaret Sanger (1879-1966).” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-margaret-sanger-1879-1966/.

Pictures

“Margaret Sanger.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Sept. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger.

“Margaret Sanger (1879-1966).” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-margaret-sanger-1879-1966/.