Contraception

A Complex Issue

Historical Notes: Margaret Sanger - A Pioneer of Planned Parenthood

Margaret Sanger (1883-1966)

As a nurse in the poorer sections of New York, Margaret Sanger saw much sexual misery. She soon realized that she could help poor women best by giving them information about how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, she began writing and publishing about this then very touchy subject. In the process, she coined the term "birth control".
In 1916  Sanger and her sister opened a birth control clinic in Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the US. This clinic was immediately closed as a "public nuisance", and the Sanger sisters were sentenced to 30 days in the workhouse.  Many subsequent accusations, prosecutions and police actions against Sanger eventually led to increasing public support for her work and to a 1936 court decision allowing doctors to prescribe contraceptives. However, many states still retained laws against their sale, and it was not until after two US Supreme Court decisions in 1965 and 1970 that the last restrictions were removed.
In 1927 Sanger organized the "American League for Birth Control" and in 1942, after several organizational mergers and name changes, a "Planned Parenthood Federation" came into existence. In 1953 Margaret Sanger became the first president of the "International Planned Parenthood Federation", and she devoted her remaining years mainly to problems of birth control in Asia.