- Margaret Sanger (1879-1966). American family planning pioneer. Born into a poor family of 11 children, she became an obstetric nurse, married Wm. Sanger, and had 3 children of her own. The Sangers spent most free evenings with the leftist and feminist thinkers in pre-World War I Greenwich Village. She came to believe that sexuality was Page 182 →the most important part of the human spirit and essential to health. She wrote and spoke on health for young women, especially mothers. It was then (1912) illegal to give any contraceptive information, even for doctors. Poor women, like Sanger’s patients, suffered most and often died. She went to Europe to learn French and Dutch modern methods. Returning to the U.S., she shared her illegal knowledge with packed audiences, founded The Woman Rebel newspaper, and opened the 1st birth control clinic in N.Y. She was arrested with her sister, Ethel Byrne, who fasted in prison and was forcibly fed. Sanger’s wealthy second husband financed much of her later work and public contributions also grew: by the 1930s there was a national network of clinics. Sanger’s earlier groups eventually became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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