Planned Parenthood

Margaret Sanger

October 16, 1916: Margaret Sanger opens a family planning and birth control clinic. This was a first in the US and was not immediately accepted. Police raided 46 Amboy Street in Brooklyn, New York just nine days later. Sanger was sentenced to 30 days in prison for this outrage. An appeal was filed and rejected. In 1918, Judge Frederick E. Crane of the New York Court of Appeals finally permitted doctors to prescribe birth control products.

Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. She was one of 11 children born to her Catholic mother and atheist father. Mrs. Higgens also miscarried 7 times and died of tuberculosis and cervical cancer leaving the young Margaret to care for younger siblings. She attended nursing school and in 1902 she married William Sanger and the young couple settled in New York City. By 1912 Sanger was practicing nursing in the slums of Manhattan and began writing a column for the New York Call concerning women’s reproductive issues.

Sanger continued to minister to poor women who were suffering the ill effects of frequent pregnancies and self-induced abortions. She also became associated with several other activists of the era. As she was tending to a patient who was quite ill from a self-induced abortion, a doctor’s advice to the woman to remain abstinent in order to prevent further pregnancies angered Sanger and gave her a new mission in life. She became an advocate for reproductive autonomy and helped women control their bodies. Her husband became her ally in the cause.

In 1915 while visiting a Dutch birth control clinic, Sanger learned of a diaphragm and how effective it was in limiting unwanted pregnancies. When she came back to the US, she took action and opened her own clinic. In 1921 she founded the American Birth Control League and traveled extensively to spread the message, at home and abroad. She continued to work towards the education of women and was finally able to open her first legal birth control clinic with the help of wealthy supporters in 1923. Her facility was staffed with only females and received several government grants. Her work carried forward even after her death in 1966.

“A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.”

“She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it.”

“When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race.”

“Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man’s attitude may be, that problem is hers – and before it can be his, it is hers alone.” – all from Margaret Sanger

Also on this day:
Cardiff Giant– In 1869, a petrified giant is found near Cardiff.
Complex Numbers – In 1843, quaternions were first defined.