Elizabeth Mcdonald: The Birth Control Movement

Elizabeth Mcdonald gave women a sense of choice and empowering more freedom that they never had before. She grew up in Athens, a small town in Clarke County, Georgia. Elizabeth was haunted by her mother's premature death giving birth to her, determined to escape similar fate Elizabeth decided not to have children and wanted to forever prevent the same scenario from happening to anyone else. Elizabeth attended Agnes Scott Institute in 1908, four years later when she was 21 she moved to New York City, settling in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village and went on to study nursing at White Plains Hospital. She worked closely with Margaret Sanger as a side by side nurse, after realizing they came from similar upbringings and have a similar mentality on having children, Margaret sold her ideals on Birth Control …show more content…
Referred to as a part of an education and publicity campaign to gain support for birth control. Elizabeth’s views on how the Birth Control “magic pill” should be used conflicted with Margaret's eugenic background. Margaret wanted the campaign to control human fertility and manage population growth because she deemed many Americans unworthy of life. She explained to Esther Katz, writer of the Margaret Sanger Papers, “initially sought the support of liberal proponents of scientific eugenics in an effort to gather mainstream support for birth control. She then began championing birth control for those with hereditary mental or physical defects, even supporting forced sterilization for the mentally incompetent. Indeed, drafts of the speeches she gave to pro-eugenics audiences indicate that she deliberately chose strong language designed to link birth control to their interest in heredity and social reform.” She was creating a want for the magic