Margaret Louise Higgins Sanger - (1879–1965)
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Margaret Louise Higgins Sanger was born on Sept. 14,
1879 in Corning, New York. She was the sixth of eleven children. Growing up, her father's traits began to appear in her. She became a rebel and was against prejudice. In 1896, Sanger went to Claverack College and the
Hudson River Institute. She studied nursing and in 1900; she worked in a nursing program at White Plains Hospital, and also worked at the Manhattan Eye and Ear Clinic.
Two years later, she married William Sanger, an architect and lived in a Westchester suburb where they had three children. But ten years of living here didn't do her any good;
she craved more and soon the family moved to Greenwich Village. In 1912, came the turning point in Sanger's life. While working as a visiting nurse, she held in her arms a
young dead mother due to a self-induced abortion. She also witnessed poverty, uncontrolled fertility, high infant and maternal moralities, and deaths from illegal abortions
in the Lower East Side of New York City. These experiences caused Sanger to fight against unwanted pregnancy. In 1914, she published "The Woman Rebel", a magazine discussing women's right to
practice birth control. Sanger also passed out pamphlets called the "Family Limitations". However, a few months later, after the third issue of "The Woman Rebel" was out, she was
indicted for violating postal obscenity laws. After this, she fled to Europe where she furthered her work because it wasn't prohibited there. Two years later, charges were
dropped. Sanger didn't stop her fight; she began to open birth-control clinics. This time she was charged with "public nuisance", and sentenced to jail. During this time, The Birth Control Review was published.
After World War I., she started the American Birth Control League to keep informing the people of birth control. She gained lots of support, and her efforts lead her to create the
National Committee of Federal Legislation for Birth Control in 1929. However, later on her views shifted. She led away from the radical feminist view to a more conservative
mainstream middle-class view. But she was still honored for the development of the Birth Control Federation of America, later known as the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America, when the American Birth Control League and the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau merged. In 1942, Sanger moved to Tucson, Arizona where she retired from being an activist. She died there in 1965 at the age of 87.
Margaret Sanger was a remarkable lady. She was strong minded and worked hard for her goal. And because of her, we have today what is known as the " the birth control pill." II. Publications Books The Case for birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of the Facts. New York: Modern Art Printing Company, 1917.
Debate Between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell. New York: The Fine Arts Guild, 1921. Happiness in Marriage. New York Brentano's, 1926. Autobiographies Bibliographies III. Bibliography
Margaret Sanger Papers Project: Bio of Margaret Sanger. [Online] Available May 23, 2000.
Appeals from American Mothers: New York: New York Women's Publishing Co., 1921.
Motherhood in Bondage. New York: Brentano's, 1928.
The New Motherhood. London: Jonathan Cape, 1922.
Pivot of Civilization. New York Bretano's, 1922.
Sayings of Others on Birth Control. New York: New York Women's Publishing Co., 1921.
What Every Girl Should Know. New York: M.N. Maisel, 1920.
Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentano's, 1920.
My Fight for Birth Control. New York: Farrar & Rinehardt, 1931.
Autobiography. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1938.
Ronald and Gloria Moore, Margaret Sanger: A Bibliography, 1911-1984. Metutchen: Scarecrow Press, 1986.
MS Writings. [Online] Available May 23, 2000.
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/mswrite.htm
The Women of the Hall-Margaret Sanger. [Online] Available May 25, 2000.
http://www.Greatwomen.org/sanger.htm
This essay was submitted by a student of Marylin Dykens, a teacher at Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York.