Margaret Sanger was born Margaret Higgins on September 14, 1879 in Corning, NY. Her family was Roman Catholic, and she was one of 11 children. Her mother Anne, in addition to 11 pregnancies, suffered through several miscarriages, and Margaret grew up watching her mom in an almost continual state of pregnancy or recovery until her death somewhere between the ages of 40 and 50. Margaret came to believe, and not without cause, that her mother died prematurely from constant pregnancies that took a heavy toll on her health. Her father Michael was a stonemason, but in keeping with the Irish stereotype of the times, preferred drinking and arguing about politics to working. Though her family grew up in poverty, she managed to attend Claverack College and Hudson River Institute around 1896 and went on to study nursing at White Plains Hospital in 1900. In 1902 Margaret married architect William Sanger, and they had three children. In 1910, the Sanger family moved to Greenwich Village in Manhattan and became part of the radical politics of the neighborhood. Margaret joined the Women’s Committee of the NY Social Party and the Liberal Club and participated in several strikes on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World (aka Wobblies).
It was during this time that Margaret’s mission in life became the empowerment of women to make their own choices about whether or not to have children. In 1914 she wrote “enforced motherhood is the most complete denial of a woman’s life and liberty.” She consciously focused her efforts on poor communities since women in poverty were rarely able to access doctors care or advice on birth control, and health care of any kind was generally unavailable.
It’s important for us to remember that before Margaret’s life birth control was not a topic for polite or even legal conversation. The only truly effective form of birth control was abstinence or infertility, and neither was much more effective than the laws of chance. The “rhythm method” was well known and allowed women to calculate fertility and either abstain or refrain from unprotected sex during that time. Even then, estimates were that 24 out of every 100 women using that method still became pregnant. Condoms, available for the past several centuries, have varied widely in materials and effectiveness, and were traditionally more about limiting the spread of syphilis and other diseases more than about preventing pregnancy. Condoms were often made from silk or other more porous cloths, animal intestines or bladders and varied widely in effectiveness in preventing pregnancy and the transmission of disease.
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