Back in 1916, when Margaret Sanger opened her first Birth Control Clinic in the United States, the term birth control was considered obscene language. Many times, she was thrown into jail for her unsuccessful crusades as an attempt to free women from the burden of unwanted pregnancies and to allow women freedom of expression (Sanger). The Roman Catholic Church also held unalterable opposition to birth control. Coming from a church publication of “The Question Box” in forbidding Birth Control, “the immediate purpose and primary end of marriage is the begetting of children, when the marital relation is used as to render the fulfillment of its purposes impossible--that is by Birth Control-- it is unethically and unnaturally” (Wallace, personal
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The Eugenics Movement was integral to eliminate the part of the population that was ‘unfit’ and the negative traits. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, eugenics is best defined as “a science that deals with the improvement of hereditary qualities of a race or breed”. It is not only the purview of academics, but a social movement that peaked in the 1920s and 30s. During the Eugenics period, the American Eugenic Society was founded, and its members were competent in “fitter family” and “better baby” competitions (PBS; Remsburg). There is such thing known as the English eugenics movement in which it promoted selective breeding for positive traits, but the United States eugenics movement focused on eliminating negative traits such as the poor, the uneducated, and the minority populations. This laid the foundation for Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Policy and for her advocation of writing and speeches. Not only that, but the movement influenced eugenics-based legislations which included the Immigration Act of 1924, segregation laws, and sterilization laws, all of which are racial hygiene theories of eugenic movements (toomanyaborted.com). The law of several American states that allowed for the prevention of reproduction of the “unfit” was greatly implemented in the Negro
The Eugenics Movement was integral to eliminate the part of the population that was ‘unfit’ and the negative traits. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, eugenics is best defined as “a science that deals with the improvement of hereditary qualities of a race or breed”. It is not only the purview of academics, but a social movement that peaked in the 1920s and 30s. During the Eugenics period, the American Eugenic Society was founded, and its members were competent in “fitter family” and “better baby” competitions (PBS; Remsburg). There is such thing known as the English eugenics movement in which it promoted selective breeding for positive traits, but the United States eugenics movement focused on eliminating negative traits such as the poor, the uneducated, and the minority populations. This laid the foundation for Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Policy and for her advocation of writing and speeches. Not only that, but the movement influenced eugenics-based legislations which included the Immigration Act of 1924, segregation laws, and sterilization laws, all of which are racial hygiene theories of eugenic movements (toomanyaborted.com). The law of several American states that allowed for the prevention of reproduction of the “unfit” was greatly implemented in the Negro