Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger, born September 14, 1879, was an American nurse, activist, and founder of the American Birth Control League, known today as Planned Parenthood.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/p_Sanger.htmlSanger is widely credited as a leader of the modern birth control movement

Discouraged by the lack of sex education and birth control options available to women, Sanger set out to establish outlets that would provide women with the necessary tools and information they needed to prevent unwanted pregnancies. In the early 20th century, issues of sex and sexual health were taboo topics, and individuals were discouraged, and even forbidden by law in some cases, from publicly discussing them. In her work as a nurse, Sanger came across several cases of women who were forced to deal with unwanted pregnancies, sometimes becoming deathly ill from botched abortions they had performed on themselves.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/p_Sanger.html When these women turned to their physicians for assistance, they were told to simply practice abstinence. Feeling that women deserved to freely explore their sexuality and engage in sexual relations, Sanger left her position as a nurse intent on establishing an outlet by which the resources could be distributed to women.

After dealing with laws that forbid the distribution of sexually related materials, and the threat of jail time, Sanger established the National Birth Control League, which would later become Planned Parenthood.http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Sanger-Margaret.html

Margaret Sanger was born Margaret Higgins in Corning, New York on September 14, 1879. Her mother was a homemaker, who birthed 18 children, with 11 surviving. Her father worked as a sculptor, carving religious figures from marble. Sanger learned early about women’s rights advocacy through her father, who was an activist for women's suffrage and free public education. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Sanger-Margaret.html

At age 15, she left home to attend the Claverack College boarding school in Claverack, New York. After 2 years at the school, her father requested she come home to care for her ailing mother. Soon after Sanger’s return home, her mother died. Sanger then enrolled in a nursing program in White Plains, New York. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Sanger-Margaret.html

She married architect, William Sanger, in 1902 and the two settled in New York City. The couple moved to Saranac, New York where they started a family. They had their first child, Stuart, in 1903. They had their second child, a girl named Peggy, in 1910. In 1912, the family relocated back to New York City after a fire destroyed their home. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Sanger-Margaret.html

Sanger worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she met women of poorer economic standing, who were either giving birth to large numbers of children they could not properly care for or undergoing unsafe abortion procedures since they could not afford proper medical care. Sanger witnessed firsthand the dangers of terminations performed illegally and without medical knowledge.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/p_Sanger.html

The Sangers divorced in 1913. Two years later, their daughter, Peggy, died on November 6, 1915. She remarried, this time to James Noah H. Slee, in 1921. She remained married to Slee until her death. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Sanger-Margaret.html

Sanger left her job as a nurse in 1912 to pursue her work with birth control advocacy In 1914 she founded the National Birth Control League, and established the first US birth control clinic in 1916. Over the next decade she worked to make resources available to women, despite laws forbidding her to do so. She fled to Europe for a short period to escape jail time.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/p_Sanger.html

Sanger died on September 6, 1966 in Tucson, Arizona. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Sanger-Margaret.html

- 1914: Fled to Europe to avoid charges she had violated postal obscenity laws
- 1915: Returned to the U.S.
- October 16, 1916: Opened a family planning and birth control clinic in Brooklyn, the first in the United States. It was raided nine days later by the police. She served 30 days in jail.
- 1916: Published What Every Girl Should Know. with information about menstruation and sexuality in adolescents.
- 1917: Published What Every Mother Should Know. Launched the monthly periodical The Birth Control Review and Birth Control News. Contributed articles on health to the Socialist Party paper, The Call.
- 1921: Founded the American Birth Control League (ABCL)
- 1923: Established the Clinical Research Bureau, the first legal birth control clinic in the U.S. Formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control
- 1928: Resigned as President of the ABCL
- 1937: National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control was dissolved once prescription birth control methods were legalized in many states
- 1952 - 1959: Served as President of the International Planned Parenthood Federation