Guide Note

Margaret Sanger was an American birth control activist, an advocate of negative eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League a.k.a Planned Parenthood and was instrumental in legalizing birth control. However, her racist ideology and advocacy for eugenics are two topics that have helped to ruin her reputation.

Fast Facts

1. Born: September 14, 1879
2. Death: September 6, 1966
3. Birth Name: Margaret Higgins
4. Arrested: approx. 8 times
5. 1 of 11 siblings
6. Children: 2 sons, 1 daughter(d. in childbirth)
7. Believed that each woman be "the absolute mistress of her own body."

Timeline

1. October 16, 1916: Sanger opened a family planning and birth control clinic in Brooklyn, the first in the United States. It was raided nine days later by the police. She served 30 days in prison
2. 1916: Sanger published What Every Girl Should Know.It provided information about such topics as menstruation and sexuality in adolescents.
3. 1917: Sanger published What Every Mother Should Know. She also launched the monthly periodical The Birth Control Review and Birth Control News and contributed articles on health to the Socialist Party paper, The Call.
4. 1921: Sanger founded the American Birth Control League
5. 1923: Sanger established the Clinical Research Bureau, which was the first legal birth control clinic in the U.S and also formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control

Significance

Sanger is widely credited as a leader of the modern birth control movement