Birth Control Movement

Birth Control Movement

            Birth control in the 19^th century was a very controversial topic, and it still is today. Many believe birth control is wrong and immoral for many different reasons. Christians and other religious people believe that sex should only be used to have a child; therefore any sort of contraceptive is wrong. Margaret Sanger felt strongly about the rights of women to use birth control and dedicated her life to showing that.

            The Birth Control Movement was part of the Reform Movement of the 19^th century. During the Reform Movement, women worked on many issues relating to sexuality, marriage, and childbirth. They worked to censure pornography, abolish prostitution, and end “white slavery” which was commonly known as sex trafficking. They also wanted to raise the age of sexual consent and promote sexual education in schools and at home. The Birth Control Movement was founded during the Progressive Era as a response to the Comstock Laws of the 1870s. These laws outlawed the distribution of birth control info and devises through the mail. The laws were regarded as the “Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use”. These immoral uses included unlawful abortion and contraception. These laws created havoc among the birth control advocates, but it didn’t stop them. These laws not only pushed these women, but they brought the work of Margaret Sanger to light.

            Born into a family of 11 children, Sanger saw the effects of childbirth early on. Her mother painfully endured 11 childbirths and 7 miscarriages before she died at the age of 50. Standing over her mother’s grave, Sanger lashed out at her father, “You caused this. Mother is dead from having too many children.” Even after the death of her mother, Sanger still saw the lasting effects of childbirth in women. As a trained nurse, Sanger saw first hand graphic examples of the toll taken by frequent childbirth, miscarriages, and self-induced abortion. Many of these women turned to horrible methods of abortion because they couldn’t bear having another child.

            In an interview with Sanger, she explains her reasoning behind her support of the birth control. She was asked if she fought for birth control as a way of fighting the church. As the daughter of an atheist father, Sanger and her siblings were often referred to as “children of the devil”. It would make sense for her to want revenge on the church however she states, “No, I don’t think it had anything of the kind. I was, what I call, a born humanitarian. I don’t like to see people suffer, I don’t like to see cruelty even to this day, and in nursing you see a great deal.” She also explains how at this time, she had no opposition to the church, mainly the law, federal and state. She believed that women should have the right to be educated about the different ways of birth control and that the state should not mandate this topic. Later in the interview, she was asked out right what her motive was. She made it clear that her main purpose and primary goal was to end the suffering of women.

            Because of these reasons, Sanger devoted her life to legalizing birth control and making it universally available to women. She began to write and publish articles on the subject and eventually published a magazine called The Woman Rebel. This magazine was a radical feminist monthly that advocated military action and the right of every woman to be the “absolute mistress of her own body.” This magazine actually coined the word “birth control”. Despite Sanger’s many efforts, the authorities suppressed 5 of the 7 issues under the Comstock Laws. After this, however, Sanger defied authorities by publishing a 17-page pamphlet entitled Family Limitation, containing precise examples of various contraceptive methods.

            Other than writing articles, Sanger also took many steps to provide birth control care to many women. Sanger founded the National Birth Control League(NBCL), which would later turn into the Voluntary Parenthood League. Then, on October 6,1916, Sanger opened the nation’s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn. Nine days later she was arrested along with her coworkers. Sanger was eventually put on trial for this, but this didn’t shut her movement down, she used the media to gain support. Because of this, Sanger has great success in gaining public support and persuading the general public and authorities to join her movement. After the opening of the birth control clinic, Sanger’s movement began to have great success with the law. By 1918, the state allowed physicians to prescribe birth control to women when medically indicated. After the founding of the American Birth Control League in 1921, a clinic was opened, staffed with many female physicians, to provide and array of gynecological and contraceptive services. This clinic, Birth Control Clinic Research Bureau, became a model for a nationwide system of doctor-staffed clinics. By, 1937, the American Medical Association finally endorsed birth control as a form of legal contraception.

            It is obvious that Sanger’s entire life was devoted to this movement and she had great success, even after facing many hardships in the beginning: jail, scrutiny, and mockery. Sanger, however, could not have succeeded without using some important tools and tactics. By using communication and persuasion, Sanger was able to gain a wide range of support for her movement. Like I mentioned earlier, Sanger used the media during her trial to persuade the public to join her movement. I believe that Sanger’s entire movement was devoted to persuading not only the American people, but also the law and the authorities to support birth control. While spending time in England, Sanger was greatly influenced by many theorists and feminists and this impacted her movement. When attempting to create an oral contraceptive in 1951, Sanger collaborated with two important individuals. She collaborated with medical expert Gregory Pincus and international heiress Katharine McCormick to create the world first, FDA approved, oral contraceptive, Envoid. Because of this collaboration, the court ruled the private use of contraceptives a constitutional right. Using these three tactics, communication, persuasion, and collaboration, Sanger was able to do great work in changing America’s and the world’s view about birth control.

            Because of Sanger’s dedication and determination, women around the world were freed from the pain of unwanted childbirth, and the harm of the unjust forms of self-inflicted abortion. They were also, now, able to choose for themselves whether or not they wanted to have and raise a child. Sanger changed the lives of many women and families around the world and for that, the world will be forever grateful.

Margaret Sanger 

Margaret Sanger's signature, commonly seen on many of her papers and journals. 

A snippet from a 1914 issue of The Woman Rebel

Many women at a meeting of the American Birth Control League

A picture of a page from an issue of The Woman Rebel

Works Cited:

National Women's History Museum: This source was useful as a first source to get an overview of the topic. It was not a very long article, however, it did have good information for how short it was. It briefly explained the causes of the Birth Control Movement and introduced me to Margaret Sanger. The National Women's History Museum was founded in 1996 by Karen Staser and has been committed to educating the public about women's history ever since. 

Britannica: I used this source just to get a general idea of what the Comstock Laws were and how they affected the Birth Control Movement. Britannica is an online encyclopedia as well as a print and is a general knowledge English-language encyclopedia. 

American National Biography: This source was very useful because it gave not only information about Margaret Sanger herself, but also about her beliefs and work with birth control. Some of the information was extraneous, but once I picked out what was useful and appropriate for my research, I got a lot of information from it. This page was written by Esther Katz, the editor and director of the Maragret Sanger Papers Project and a graduate of NYU with a PhD in US History. 

The Woman Rebel and The Fight for Birth Control: This primary source was an article from Maragret Sanger's The Woman Rebel. Although I did not use this article as much as the other, it did give a good look into Sanger's persistence during this process. It tells about her struggles and the troubles she faced while pursuing this. 

Interview with Margaret Sanger: I really enjoyed watching this interview because I got to hear Sanger answer some questions on the spot without a lot of time to think. She answered some basic questions about her work,  but also had to answer many questions regarding why she did what she did. It was beneficial for my research to hear what Sanger had to say and I got some really good quotes and information from this. 

Morality and Birth Control: This primary source was another article published by Margaret Sanger. This was a good look inside Sanger's head and I feel like I got a sense of how she came about her work with birth control. It gave a real life example of what Sanger saw and told about how she reacted. Because this was written by Sanger herself, I feel like I got a different experience than just reading an article about the Birth Control Movement. 

PBS: This was a very useful source and it provided a great insight as to why Sanger felt the way she did about birth control. It had very useful information organized in an easy-to-read manner. PBS is a public broadcasting service owned by non-profit and educational institutions affiliated with universities and schools as well as government owned organizations.

Textbook: Our textbook had a pretty good bit of information on this topic. It gave me a good idea of what I needed to research further because there wasn't much detail in the text. Once I read through it, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to research more.