Sanger, Margaret (1879-1966)

Margaret Sanger dedicated her life to securing reproductive rights for women. She was born in 1879 in Corning, New York, to Michael and Anne Higgins. From her father, she inherited radical roots and the courage to fight for what she believed in. Her mother, who was pregnant 18 times (11 births, 7 miscarriages) and often ill, helped to spark Sanger's interest in nursing and reproductive rights. Sanger studied at Claverack College and the Hudson Institute; she also attended a nursing program at White Plains Hospital in 1900.

At this hospital she met her first husband, William Sanger, whom she married in 1902. They had three children. The Sangers lived in New York City, where both William and Margaret Sanger were members of the New York Socialist Party Local No. 5. Sanger was [Page 736]working with women in extreme poverty on the Lower East Side and became increasingly angered and concerned about their living conditions. In response, she began publishing a column about reproductive concerns in the magazine New York Call. These articles were censored under the 1873 Comstock Laws on the grounds that they were obscene. In 1911, she published a magazine titled Women Rebel, which was full of information on reproductive rights. This magazine was also censored, and she was arraigned on obscenity charges in 1914.

Sanger was opposed to the Comstock Laws and continued to write, distributing thousands of family-planning leaflets. She evaded her trial by moving to Europe for almost a year, where her fame blossomed. Upon her return, her youngest daughter Peggy died from pneumonia at age 5. Shortly thereafter, charges against Sanger were dropped.

In 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. The clinic was shut down within 9 days, and Sanger was arrested and served a 30-day sentence. During her trial, the judge found that only certified physicians were allowed to distribute contraceptives to their patients. She sought to bring mainstream attention to contraceptives, and in 1929, formed a committee solely responsible to lobby for birth control rights. She was able to get the courts to allow physicians to distribute contraceptives. After Sanger's release, she opened a new physician-run clinic named the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, which later joined with the American Birth Control League to form Planned Parenthood.

In the 1920s, Sanger worked to increase awareness about reproductive health internationally. She traveled through out Asia and Europe. She lectured extensively about birth control rights in Japan and helped to form the first conference on World Population Control in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927.

In 1921, Sanger published her second magazine, The Birth Control Monthly, still in the hopes of drawing more attention to reproductive rights both nationally and internationally. Sanger remained the head of Planned Parenthood until 1942. She worked hard to form the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and was president of that organization until 1959. Sanger still continued to work for reproductive rights up until her death on September 6, 1966, at the age of 86.

A controversial figure throughout her life and even after her death, she remains one of the most influential figures in the battle for reproductive rights in the United States. Sanger helped give certain groups of women a voice when they had none, and to make reproductive health an issue not worth ignoring. Sanger fought hard for women's reproductive health and was a role model for many other ongoing

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