Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger, born Margaret Higgins, grew up one of 11 children in a very poor family, and went on to become a nurse at the beginning of this century. In this capacity she became appalled by the horrors wreaked by unwanted pregnancies among married women who already had ten or more children--even discussing birth control was illegal then. These women were not allowed to deny sex to their husbands; marital rape was legal, and in fact sex was seen as a husband's right, and called "the poor man's only luxury." The most common cause of death among women was complications arising from childbirth. Most poor children worked long hours in workhouses or died early of disease; their parents could not afford to feed such large families. Women who knew they carried untreatable diseases could not prevent conceiving children, even knowing they would be born infected. Often they tried to self-induce abortions, or enlist the aid of a family member to abort a baby they could not feed, and died themselves in the attempt. Finally, a young mother--who had begged Margaret months before for some means of birth control--died from giving birth to yet another child. Margaret felt compelled to do *something*.
It was not easy for young Margaret to "do something." During the next few decades, she spent time in jail for sending birth control information ("lewd material") through the mail. She spent still more time in jail for opening a clinic to dispense information and provide medical check-ups to poor women. And she would go to jail other times, as well. But these women begged for her help, and Margaret could not give up.
Eventually, Margaret learned to "play the system," and gained the support of other human rights activists. Faced with the realities of an unequal system, Margaret learned to compromise enough to achieve her goals, and she has been criticized for some of these compromises. For example, she realized that the already-powerful people who wanted to legislate "racial purity" could provide support for legalizing birth control, and she accepted this support. Her goal, however, was not to prevent mixed-race children--she never advocated enforced birth control!--but to allow women of any race to prevent life-threatening conceptions. She has also been criticized by right-to-life advocates who associate her with the pro-choice movement, but this is not altogether an accurate association. Margaret Sanger *did* found Planned Parenthood, which today is a strong pro-choice organization. But Margaret was fighting in the days before the counter-revolution of the 60's, before premarital sex was a pertinent issue. She was fighting for the rights of married mothers to limit the number of children they conceived in order to ensure a better quality of life for themselves and their existing families. Her 1918 trial finally made it legal for doctors to advise married patients (only) about birth control; in 1978 the U.S. Supreme Court finally struck down the last of the state laws that prohibited doctors from giving information about birth control to married couples. A year later single people were granted the same access to such information.
Consider, for a moment, how your life might be different if birth control had remained illegal even to married couples. Before birth control was available, women typically had many children--often as many as eighteen or more. Most women died in childbirth. Most husbands were trying to feed families far larger than their incomes could adequately provide for. Think about the environment in which you grew up, and if your family's income could have supported a stay-at-home parent and a dozen or so extra children. Think about your own lifestyle. Is there any reason you might have to offer Margaret Sanger a bit of gratitude for her activism?
Jacqueline DeVries, February 26, 1999
(much information here should be credited to http://www.gale.com/gale/cwh/sangerm.html.)