Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood

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Planned Parenthood, known internationally as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women stay safe, informed and have access to necessary opportunities. The organization officially formed in 1923, after a long battle, which was still not over. Margaret Sanger, is the first named woman for creating and publicly voicing her opinion on birth control and sex education for women. Margaret Sanger was an influential women rights activist famous for starting Planned Parenthood, the idea and startup of which happened during the Progressive Era through World War II, giving way to women’s right to birth control and abortions. On September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York, Margaret Sanger was born. Her parents, Michael and Anne Higgins had a total of 11 children, Margaret being their sixth. From the start of her childhood, Margaret realized her family’s lack of money could be due to her and her siblings needs. Her mother, Anne, also had multiple miscarriages, which could be a link to her poor health and early death. Margaret was teaching at a school in New Jersey but returned home to tend to her sick mother before her eventual death of Tuberculosis. This early awareness and personal connection could be a strong connection to her later on views about abortions and birth control, despite the many negative and opposing views society had on them. In 1902, Margaret moved to White Plains, New York, permanently and married William Sanger. In 1903, she gave birth to her first son, ironically while battling Tuberculosis. Her husband and her had another son as well as a daughter who died in childbirth. Sanger started working in the slums of Manhattan with poor families, became a radical in Socialist ideas- such as distributing necessities to everyone- Sanger also attended as many radical rallies as possible and learned as much as possible about the limited choices women had for birth control. In 1913 she got a job as a writer for the newspaper “New York Call” writing a column called “What Every Girl …show more content…
After a total of 6 printed issues, Sanger was arrested on the terms of writing “obscene and immoral” thoughts. She fled from the law and went to Europe, while continuing to learn from medical researchers and existing clinics. On October 16, 1916, when her charges were dropped, she returned to the United States and travelled across it, giving speeches and lecturing at rallies. Margaret Sanger-and two of her older sisters, Fania Mindell and Ethel Byrne- The sisters settled in Brooklyn, New York and opened their first birth clinic. The clinic was similar to the ones Sanger had visited in Europe. For the price of ten cents, a girl could receive a pamphlet, lecture and information on the female reproductive system, as well as information on a few various examples of possible birth control. They taught around 400 girls within ten days of opening. They were caught and arrested when an undercover policewoman invested the clinic. They were in violation of the Comstock Act of 1873-“Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use” which includes the talk of or more importantly, support of birth control.- Sanger spent a night in jail and was released with the simple expectation to not repeat the mistake, she of course, ignored that expectation and reopened the clinic November

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