'When motherhood and childhood are free, we then can go hand in hand with man, to remake the world, for the glorification as well as the emancipation of the human race.' Margaret Sanger ended her passionate speech debating birth control against Winter Russell with that quote. Sanger, born in 1879, was a revolutionary woman who spent her lifetime defending the rights of women across America. She is credited with coining the term “birth control” and with being the co-creator of the world’s first oral contraception pill. Most people debated whether Sanger deserved a good reputation. She did innovative work with contraception for women, which had her loved by many. Unfortunately, she also dabbled in eugenics, which is the science of controlled natural selection in humans. For quite a few Americans, this interest in eugenics blemished Sanger’s reputation beyond repair. Sanger deserves her good reputation due to her work as an activist for women, which was her creation of safer abortion and the term birth control, as well as co-engineering an oral contraceptive pill. [1: “Debate Between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell,” Gorn, Elliot J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History. 5th ed. Vol 2. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.]
Sanger, at a young age, watched her mother pass away from, among other things, the effort of delivering over ten children and dealing with seven miscarriages. She then devoted herself to assisting other women trapped in unwanted pregnancies with their abortions. At the time, women burdened with unwanted pregnancies had to resort to dangerous and unsanitary abortions that they often performed on themselves. As Sanger stated in her debate against Winter Russell:
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We know how detrimental abortion is to the physical side as well as to the psychic side of the woman's life, and yet there are in this nation, because of these generalities and opinions that are here before us, that are stopping the tide of progress, we have more than one million women with abortions performed on them each year.1
Sanger was an expert on the disastrous effects having a bunch of kids wrought on women, having personally witnessed these effects. As PBS’s biography on Sanger stated, “It was after these botched abortions that Sanger was usually called in to care for the women.” Wishing to assist these women in every way that she could, Sanger opened America’s very first birth control clinic, where she offered to perform safe, sanitary abortions for those who did not wish to spend the rest of their lives as a mother. Of course, not getting pregnant at all was preferable to having to abort the pregnancy. [2: 1 “Debate Between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell,” Gorn, Elliot J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History. 5th ed. Vol 2. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005. (PBS, n.d.)]
Sanger believed the concept of “birth control,” a term she invented, could help improve the lives of women across America. Birth control was created as a way for women to enjoy intimate time with their husbands without the stress of potentially having a child. “Birth control was not merely a technique; it grew out of political ideology, and Sanger believed it would contribute to the liberation of women, especially working-class women.” At the time, part of the labor that allowed America to function was done by children. When they were old enough, children got kicked out of the house and sent to work so that their mothers could deal with the next batch of children. Sanger despised child labor and saw birth control as a means of either crippling or dissolving the industry. Of course, there were people in the government who wrote laws with the intent of ending child labor. But, in Sanger’s opinion: [3: (Courses. PSU, n.d.)]
…they have not succeeded and they will never succeed until they establish birth control clinics in those districts where these women are, where they put in birth control clinics as they have in Holland--in every industrial section in the United States where women can come to trained nurses and physicians and get from them scientific information whereby they may control birth.
Birth control was a revolutionary idea, but as with most things, it was not readily supported by everyone. [4: “Debate Between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell,” Gorn, Elliot J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History. 5th ed. Vol 2. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.]
Sanger’s quest for birth control was marred by the inconvenience of the fact that sending out information about birth control was illegal. This fact was present in Sanger’s life twice. The first time, she was charged with sending out diaphragms to women through the postal service. Later, she was arrested and sent to serve jail time after she opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and started distributing diaphragms to women whenever they stopped by. Thankfully, she did not spend the rest of her life rotting in a prison cell. “Her conviction, when appealed, won an interpretation of New York law that allowed doctors — though not nurses, as she intended — to prescribe contraception for medical purposes.”
Unfortunately for Sanger, her problems with dispensing birth control to the women of America did not end with legal issues. The risk of jail was not the only thing standing in the way of her concept of birth control. [5: (Population Reference Bureau, 2000)]
Sanger received backlash about how she used eugenics to spread her ideas on birth control across America. Eugenics, which is a fancy name for the study of supervised natural selection in humans, was a highly debated topic in America. Part of the backlash Sanger faced came from the fact that many Eugenicists believed that birth control, according to PBS’s “Eugenics and Birth Control,” was “a useful tool for curbing procreation among the “weak”.” Those who did not support eugenics refused to use birth control, feeling that, by doing so, they would support eugenics. Sanger herself was not a supporter of eugenics and opposed many of the core beliefs. However, that did not stop her from using eugenics to boost the progress of her notion of birth control. Sanger thought that, by pairing her idea with eugenics, she could ride the wave of success that eugenics was producing. She used eugenics as a primary argument in her speeches, which tarnished her reputation in the eyes of many Americans. Moreover, her reputation was dirt in the minds of the black people of America, in particular. They believed that Sanger was using birth control and eugenics as a cover story for her real intentions. They believed that Sanger did not want more generations of black people in America and was trying to use her ideas as a means of accomplishing this. Despite the accusations, Sanger went on in her life to create an innovative piece of technology. [6: (PBS, Eugenics and Birth Control, n.d.)]
Sanger desired to help design a pill that would act as a contraceptive device that women could control. At the time, the only birth control devices available to the public were the diaphragm, a little cup-like object made from silicone that covers the cervix to prevent pregnancy, and a full-length rubber condom. Unfortunately, most women did not use diaphragms due to embarrassment or uncomfortableness. Women would happily use condoms, but as they were for men, they had less say in whether condoms would be used. Sanger wished to create a contraceptive device that was essentially a pill, that would be as easy to use as any other type of medication. According to PBS’s biography on Sanger, “She wanted a pill that could provide women with cheap, safe, effective and female-controlled contraception.” Now that Sanger had the basic concept of her “dream pill” sorted out, all she needed was someone to help her bring her idea into reality. [7: (PBS, Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), n.d.)]
Sanger sought to find someone to assist her in making her dream pill a reality. She had waited long enough for scientists to create an oral contraceptive and was ready to take matters into her own hands. Finally, after searching far and wide for someone with the means to take her vision and make it physical, she found a partner in a medical expert in human reproduction named Gregory Pincus. Not long thereafter, she and her new partner gained a sponsor: “International Harvester heiress Katharine McCormick.” Sanger and her dream team began work on the oral contraceptive and ended up accomplishing her dream. In 1960, the FDA approved the creation birthed out of the partnership, Enovid, the world’s first oral contraceptive. With a little bit of assistance, Sanger had finally brought her dream to life. [8: (PBS, Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), n.d.)]
Sanger’s life goal was to bring safe, affordable birth control to the women of America. Although not everyone welcomed her ideas with open arms, she did end up changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of women. As she stated in her debate against Winter Russell, “'I am speaking for the millions of women who are crushed with over childbearing, whose lives are broken and who have become drudges in the family today.' She poured her heart and soul into helping her fellow women and was justly deserving of her good reputation. At the age of 81, Sanger departed this life with the knowledge that she had won the war for the right to allow women to govern their fertility. [9: “Debate Between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell,” Gorn, Elliot J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History. 5th ed. Vol 2. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.]
Bibliography
- birth control. Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.courses.psu.edu/hist/hist021_cjs18/birth.htm.
- “Eugenics and Birth Control.” PBS. Public Broadcasting Service. Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-eugenics-and-birth-control/.
- “Debate Between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell.” Gorn, Elliott J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a Peoples History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2005.
- “Margaret Sanger.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, April 15, 2019. https://www.biography.com/activist/margaret-sanger.
- “Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Pioneer.” Population Reference Bureau. Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.prb.org/margaretsangerbirthcontrolpioneer/.
- “Margaret Sanger (1879-1966).” PBS. Public Broadcasting Service. Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-margaret-sanger-1879-1966/.
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