Higgins. He was known for being vocal about his beliefs and for challenging ideas; he was a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement. Although Higgins studied medicine and phrenology, he made a career of making tombstones for church cemeteries. Subsequently, his income was severely damaged after he converted from Catholicism to atheism. Sanger has been said to have “shared his questioning mind, outspokenness, and willingness to face the consequences.” This is significant because it gave her the confidence to write many articles about women’s sexuality and challenge the Comstock laws head on.
She was also influenced by her mother’s challenges with childbirth. She gave birth to eleven children and miscarried seven times, which took a toll on her health. She was left weak and struggled to take care of her children. This situation was common because they lived during a time in which women were expected to have as many children as possible, no matter what the consequences were. She was ill for most of her child bearing life and died at forty- nine from tuberculosis; Sanger was only nineteen when she lost her mother. She blamed her struggles with child birth for her mother’s