Dating back to October 16, 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. Soon after, she was arrested and accused of supplying indecent materials to women. In 1938, the clinic officially became the American Birth Control League, and by 1944, had over 200 functioning centers and a significant amount of clients—upwards of around forty-thousand. Many at the time found the operation’s name offensive, and Sanger changed it to what we all know today as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). The PPFA was initially a safe and confidential clinic for underprivileged women to gain insight on contraception guidance. After one hundred years, their main goal is to continue to improve women’s health, despite conflicting
