Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Margaret Sanger" - New World
David Doose (talk | contribs) (Started) |
|||
Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
}} | }} | ||
− | '''Margaret Higgins Sanger''' (September 14, 1879 - September 6, 1966) was an [[United States|American]] [[birth control]] activist, and the founder of the [[American Birth Control League]] (which eventually became [[Planned Parenthood]]). Initially met with fierce opposition to her ideas, Sanger gradually won some support, both in the public as well as the courts, for a woman's choice to decide how and when she will bear children. Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control. Sanger was an avid defender of free speech who was arrested at least eight times for expressing her views | + | '''Margaret Higgins Sanger''' (September 14, 1879 - September 6, 1966) was an [[United States|American]] [[birth control]] activist, and the founder of the [[American Birth Control League]] (which eventually became [[Planned Parenthood]]). Initially met with fierce opposition to her ideas, Sanger gradually won some support, both in the public as well as the courts, for a woman's choice to decide how and when she will bear children. Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control. Sanger was an avid defender of free speech who was arrested at least eight times for expressing her views on birth control. |
H.G. Wells quote here? | H.G. Wells quote here? | ||
− | == | + | ==Biography== |
Sanger was born in [[Corning (city), New York|Corning]], [[New York]]. Her mother, Anne Purcell Higgins, was a devout [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] who went through 18 pregnancies (with 11 live births)<ref>Steinem.</ref> before dying of [[tuberculosis]] and [[cervical cancer]]. Sanger attended Claverack College, a boarding school in [[Hudson, New York|Hudson]] for two years. Her sisters paid her tuition, and when they were unable to continue to provide this assistance, Sanger returned home in 1899. Her mother died the same year, after which Sanger enrolled in a nursing program at a hospital in [[White Plains, New York|White Plains]], New York. In 1902, she married William Sanger. Although stricken by tuberculosis, she gave birth to a son the following year, followed in later years by a second son and a daughter who died in childhood. | Sanger was born in [[Corning (city), New York|Corning]], [[New York]]. Her mother, Anne Purcell Higgins, was a devout [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] who went through 18 pregnancies (with 11 live births)<ref>Steinem.</ref> before dying of [[tuberculosis]] and [[cervical cancer]]. Sanger attended Claverack College, a boarding school in [[Hudson, New York|Hudson]] for two years. Her sisters paid her tuition, and when they were unable to continue to provide this assistance, Sanger returned home in 1899. Her mother died the same year, after which Sanger enrolled in a nursing program at a hospital in [[White Plains, New York|White Plains]], New York. In 1902, she married William Sanger. Although stricken by tuberculosis, she gave birth to a son the following year, followed in later years by a second son and a daughter who died in childhood. | ||
Line 25: | Line 25: | ||
==Family planning clinics== | ==Family planning clinics== | ||
− | On Oct. 16, 1916, Sanger opened a family planning and birth control clinic at 46 Amboy St. in the Brownsville neighborhood of [[Brooklyn]], the first of its kind in the United States. It was raided nine days later by the police. She served 30 days in prison. | + | On Oct. 16, 1916, Sanger opened a family planning and birth control clinic at 46 Amboy St. in the Brownsville neighborhood of [[Brooklyn]], the first of its kind in the United States. It was raided nine days later by the police. She served 30 days in prison. While an initial appeal was rejected, a state appellate court in 1918 allowed doctors to prescribe contraception. |
− | In 1916, Sanger published ''What Every Girl Should Know,'' which was later widely distributed as one of the [[E. Haldeman-Julius]] "[[Little Blue Books]]." It | + | In 1916, Sanger published ''What Every Girl Should Know,'' which was later widely distributed as one of the [[E. Haldeman-Julius]] "[[Little Blue Books]]." It provided basic information about sexuality and development, particularly in adolescence. It was followed in 1917 by ''What Every Mother Should Know''. She also launched the monthly periodical ''The Birth Control Review and Birth Control News'' and contributed articles on health for the [[United States Socialist Party|Socialist Party]] paper, ''The Call''. |
− | Sanger founded the [[American Birth Control League]] (ABCL) in 1921 with [[Lothrop Stoddard]] and [[C. C. Little]]. In 1922, she traveled to [[Japan]] to work with Japanese feminist [[Kato Shidzue]] promoting birth control; over the next several years, she would return another six times for this purpose. In this year she married the oil tycoon, James Noah H. Slee. | + | Sanger founded the [[American Birth Control League]] (ABCL) in 1921 with [[Lothrop Stoddard]] and [[C. C. Little]]. In 1922, she traveled to [[Japan]] to work with Japanese feminist [[Kato Shidzue]] promoting birth control; over the next several years, she would return another six times for this purpose. In this same year she married the oil tycoon, James Noah H. Slee. |
In 1923, under the auspices of the ABCL, she established the Clinical Research Bureau. It was the first legal birth control clinic in the U.S. (renamed Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in her honor in 1940). It received crucial grants from [[John D. Rockefeller, Jr.]]'s Bureau of Social Hygiene from 1924 onwards, which were made anonymously to avoid public exposure of the Rockefeller name to her cause. The family also consistently supported her ongoing efforts in regard to population control.<small><ref>Crucial, anonymous Rockefeller grants to the Clinical Research Bureau and support for population control - see | In 1923, under the auspices of the ABCL, she established the Clinical Research Bureau. It was the first legal birth control clinic in the U.S. (renamed Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in her honor in 1940). It received crucial grants from [[John D. Rockefeller, Jr.]]'s Bureau of Social Hygiene from 1924 onwards, which were made anonymously to avoid public exposure of the Rockefeller name to her cause. The family also consistently supported her ongoing efforts in regard to population control.<small><ref>Crucial, anonymous Rockefeller grants to the Clinical Research Bureau and support for population control - see | ||
Line 36: | Line 36: | ||
Also in 1923, she formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control and served as its president until its dissolution in 1937 after birth control, under medical supervision, was legalized in many states. In 1927, Sanger helped organize the first [[World Population Conference]] in [[Geneva]]. | Also in 1923, she formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control and served as its president until its dissolution in 1937 after birth control, under medical supervision, was legalized in many states. In 1927, Sanger helped organize the first [[World Population Conference]] in [[Geneva]]. | ||
− | + | From 1916 on, she lectured "in many places—halls, churches, women's clubs, homes, theaters" | |
In 1930 she became president of the Birth Control International Information Center. In January 1932, she addressed the [[New History Society]], an organization founded by [[Mirza Ahmad Sohrab]] and [[Julia Lynch Olin|Julie Chanler]]; this address would later become the basis for an article entitled ''A Plan for Peace''.<ref name=pouzzner>Pouzzner.</ref> In 1937, Sanger became chairperson of the Birth Control Council of America and launched two publications, ''The Birth Control Review'' and ''The Birth Control News''. From 1939 to 1942, she was an honorary delegate of the Birth Control Federation of America. From 1952 to 1959, she served as president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation; at the time, the largest private international family planning organization. | In 1930 she became president of the Birth Control International Information Center. In January 1932, she addressed the [[New History Society]], an organization founded by [[Mirza Ahmad Sohrab]] and [[Julia Lynch Olin|Julie Chanler]]; this address would later become the basis for an article entitled ''A Plan for Peace''.<ref name=pouzzner>Pouzzner.</ref> In 1937, Sanger became chairperson of the Birth Control Council of America and launched two publications, ''The Birth Control Review'' and ''The Birth Control News''. From 1939 to 1942, she was an honorary delegate of the Birth Control Federation of America. From 1952 to 1959, she served as president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation; at the time, the largest private international family planning organization. | ||
− | |||
In the early 1960s, Sanger promoted the use of the newly available [[birth control pill]]. She toured Europe, Africa, and Asia, lecturing and helping to establish clinics. | In the early 1960s, Sanger promoted the use of the newly available [[birth control pill]]. She toured Europe, Africa, and Asia, lecturing and helping to establish clinics. | ||
Line 48: | Line 47: | ||
==Philosophy== | ==Philosophy== | ||
− | Although Sanger was greatly influenced by her father, her mother's death left her with a deep sense of dissatisfaction concerning her own and society's understanding of women's health and childbirth. | + | Although Sanger was greatly influenced by her father, her mother's death left her with a deep sense of dissatisfaction concerning her own and society's understanding of women's health and childbirth. Sanger was particularly critical of the lack of awareness of the dangers of and the scarcity of treatment opportunities for [[venereal disease]] among women. Sanger also deplored the absence of regulations requiring registration of people diagnosed with venereal diseases (which she contrasted with mandatory registration of those with infectious diseases such as [[measles]]). |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | put definition of eudgencies here | |
− | + | However, in the early 20th century, the eugenics movement, in which Sanger was prominently involved, gained strong support in the United States. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||
− | Sanger remains a controversial figure. While she is widely credited as a leader of the modern birth control movement, and remains an iconic figure for the American [[reproductive rights]] movements, she also is reviled by some who condemn her as "an abortion advocate" (perhaps unfairly so: [[abortion]] was illegal during Sanger's lifetime and Planned Parenthood did not then support the procedure or lobby for its legalisation). | + | Sanger remains a controversial figure. While she is widely credited as a leader of the modern birth control movement, and remains an iconic figure for the American [[reproductive rights]] movements, she also is reviled by some who condemn her as "an abortion advocate" (perhaps unfairly so: [[abortion]] was illegal during Sanger's lifetime and Planned Parenthood did not then support the procedure or lobby for its legalisation). Her opposition to abortion stemmed primarily from a concern for the dangers to the mother, and less so from legal concerns or the welfare of the unborn child.<ref>{{cite book|last=Streitmatter|first=Rodger|title=Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|date=2001|location=New York|pages=169|id=ISBN 0-231-12249-7}}</ref> <blockquote>She wrote in a 1916 edition of ''Family Limitation,'' "no one can doubt that there are times when an abortion is justifiable," though she framed this in the context of her birth control advocacy, adding that "abortions will become unnecessary when care is taken to prevent conception. (Care is) the only cure for abortions."</blockquote> |
− | + | Sanger consistently regarded birth control and abortion as the responsibility and burden first and foremost of women, and as matters of law, medicine and public policy second.<ref>Gray.</ref> | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== |
Revision as of 15:23, 18 March 2007
Margaret Higgins Sanger |
---|
Margaret Sanger.
|
Born |
September 14, 1879 Corning, New York |
Died |
September 6, 1966 Tucson, Arizona |
Margaret Higgins Sanger (September 14, 1879 - September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist, and the founder of the American Birth Control League (which eventually became Planned Parenthood). Initially met with fierce opposition to her ideas, Sanger gradually won some support, both in the public as well as the courts, for a woman's choice to decide how and when she will bear children. Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control. Sanger was an avid defender of free speech who was arrested at least eight times for expressing her views on birth control. H.G. Wells quote here?
Biography
Sanger was born in Corning, New York. Her mother, Anne Purcell Higgins, was a devout Roman Catholic who went through 18 pregnancies (with 11 live births)[1] before dying of tuberculosis and cervical cancer. Sanger attended Claverack College, a boarding school in Hudson for two years. Her sisters paid her tuition, and when they were unable to continue to provide this assistance, Sanger returned home in 1899. Her mother died the same year, after which Sanger enrolled in a nursing program at a hospital in White Plains, New York. In 1902, she married William Sanger. Although stricken by tuberculosis, she gave birth to a son the following year, followed in later years by a second son and a daughter who died in childhood.
In 1912, after a devastating fire destroyed the new home that her husband had designed, Sanger and her family moved to New York City, where she went to work in the poverty-stricken East Side slums of Manhattan. That same year, she also started writing a column for the New York Call entitled "What Every Girl Should Know." Distributing a pamphlet, Family Limitation, to poor women, Sanger repeatedly risked scandal and imprisonment by acting in defiance of the Comstock Law of 1873, which outlawed as obscene the dissemination of contraceptive information and devices.
Margaret separated from her husband William Sanger in 1913. In 1914, Sanger launched The Woman Rebel,a monthly newsletter and coined the term "birth control." She was indicted for violating postal obscenity laws in August and fled to Europe using the assumed name "Bertha Watson" to escape prosecution. She returned to the United States in 1915 and later that year her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died. ?
Family planning clinics
On Oct. 16, 1916, Sanger opened a family planning and birth control clinic at 46 Amboy St. in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the United States. It was raided nine days later by the police. She served 30 days in prison. While an initial appeal was rejected, a state appellate court in 1918 allowed doctors to prescribe contraception.
In 1916, Sanger published What Every Girl Should Know, which was later widely distributed as one of the E. Haldeman-Julius "Little Blue Books." It provided basic information about sexuality and development, particularly in adolescence. It was followed in 1917 by What Every Mother Should Know. She also launched the monthly periodical The Birth Control Review and Birth Control News and contributed articles on health for the Socialist Party paper, The Call.
Sanger founded the American Birth Control League (ABCL) in 1921 with Lothrop Stoddard and C. C. Little. In 1922, she traveled to Japan to work with Japanese feminist Kato Shidzue promoting birth control; over the next several years, she would return another six times for this purpose. In this same year she married the oil tycoon, James Noah H. Slee.
In 1923, under the auspices of the ABCL, she established the Clinical Research Bureau. It was the first legal birth control clinic in the U.S. (renamed Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in her honor in 1940). It received crucial grants from John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s Bureau of Social Hygiene from 1924 onwards, which were made anonymously to avoid public exposure of the Rockefeller name to her cause. The family also consistently supported her ongoing efforts in regard to population control.[2]
Also in 1923, she formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control and served as its president until its dissolution in 1937 after birth control, under medical supervision, was legalized in many states. In 1927, Sanger helped organize the first World Population Conference in Geneva.
From 1916 on, she lectured "in many places—halls, churches, women's clubs, homes, theaters" In 1930 she became president of the Birth Control International Information Center. In January 1932, she addressed the New History Society, an organization founded by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab and Julie Chanler; this address would later become the basis for an article entitled A Plan for Peace.[3] In 1937, Sanger became chairperson of the Birth Control Council of America and launched two publications, The Birth Control Review and The Birth Control News. From 1939 to 1942, she was an honorary delegate of the Birth Control Federation of America. From 1952 to 1959, she served as president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation; at the time, the largest private international family planning organization.
In the early 1960s, Sanger promoted the use of the newly available birth control pill. She toured Europe, Africa, and Asia, lecturing and helping to establish clinics.
Sanger died in 1966 in Tucson, Arizona at age 86 which was eight days from her 87th birthday and only a few months after the landmark Griswold v. Connecticut decision, which legalized birth control for married couples in the U.S., the apex of her 50-year struggle.
Sanger's books include Woman and the New Race (1920), Happiness in Marriage (1926), My Fight For Birth Control (1931), and an autobiography (1938).
Philosophy
Although Sanger was greatly influenced by her father, her mother's death left her with a deep sense of dissatisfaction concerning her own and society's understanding of women's health and childbirth. Sanger was particularly critical of the lack of awareness of the dangers of and the scarcity of treatment opportunities for venereal disease among women. Sanger also deplored the absence of regulations requiring registration of people diagnosed with venereal diseases (which she contrasted with mandatory registration of those with infectious diseases such as measles).
put definition of eudgencies here However, in the early 20th century, the eugenics movement, in which Sanger was prominently involved, gained strong support in the United States.
Legacy
Sanger remains a controversial figure. While she is widely credited as a leader of the modern birth control movement, and remains an iconic figure for the American reproductive rights movements, she also is reviled by some who condemn her as "an abortion advocate" (perhaps unfairly so: abortion was illegal during Sanger's lifetime and Planned Parenthood did not then support the procedure or lobby for its legalisation). Her opposition to abortion stemmed primarily from a concern for the dangers to the mother, and less so from legal concerns or the welfare of the unborn child.[4]
She wrote in a 1916 edition of Family Limitation, "no one can doubt that there are times when an abortion is justifiable," though she framed this in the context of her birth control advocacy, adding that "abortions will become unnecessary when care is taken to prevent conception. (Care is) the only cure for abortions."
Sanger consistently regarded birth control and abortion as the responsibility and burden first and foremost of women, and as matters of law, medicine and public policy second.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Steinem.
- ↑ Crucial, anonymous Rockefeller grants to the Clinical Research Bureau and support for population control - see John Ensor Harr, and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. (pp.191, 461-62)
- ↑ Pouzzner.
- ↑ Streitmatter, Rodger (2001). Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 169. ISBN 0-231-12249-7.
- ↑ Gray.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Black, Edwin (November 9, 2003). Eugenics and the Nazis - the California connection. San Francisco Chronicle: D - 1.
- Black, Edwin [September 2003]. The War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race. New York City, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-258-7.
- Chesler, Ellen [1992]. Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America. New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-60088-5.
- Gray, Madeline [1979]. Margaret Sanger: A Biography of the Champion of Birth Control. New York City, NY: Richard Marek Publishers, 280. ISBN 0-399-90019-5.
- Knowles, Jon (2004). The Truth About Margaret Sanger. Katharine Dexter McCormick Library. (April 20, 2006 version available on the Internet Archive)
- Marshall, Robert G. and Donovan, Chuck (October 1991). Blessed Are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press. ISBN 0-89870-353-0.
- Sanger, Margaret (1938). An Autobiography. New York, NY: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1015-8.
- Planned Parenthood Federation of America (2004). Rev. Martin Luther King Jr..
- Pouzzner, Daniel (February 2005). Returning to Eden: Herding People, Culling the Herd. The Architecture of Modern Political Power. Retrieved 2006-04-13.
- Sanger, Margaret (April 1932). A Plan For Peace. The Birth Control Review: 106.
- Steinem, Gloria (April 13, 1998). Time's 100 Most Important People of the Century: Margaret Sanger. Time Magazine.
Further reading
Works by Margaret Sanger
- The Pivot of Civilization
- Woman and the New Race c.1920
- What Every Girl Should Know (1920 ed.) (GIF facsimile available)
- What Every Girl Should Know (1922 ed.) (GIF and PDF facsimiles available)
- "The Case for Birth Control" (first published in the Woman Citizen, February 23, 1924)
- Correspondence between Sanger and Katharine McCormick
- Works by Margaret Sanger. Project Gutenberg
- The Margaret Sanger Papers at Smith College
Works by other authors
- Profile on Time.com
- Profile in Women's History section of About.com
- The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
- Online excerpt from Blessed Are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood
- Online excerpts from The War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.