Margaret Sanger: Proponent of Voluntary Motherhood

Margaret Sanger fought most of her life for women’s rights to control their own fertility.

This pioneering activist was inspired by a personal tragedy.  Her mother, who gave birth eighteen times (eleven children lived) died at the young age of forty-nine.  Margaret believed her untimely death was due at least in part to the physical strain of the pregnancies.

Margaret herself endured a difficult first pregnancy and after giving birth to a son went into a sanitarium.

Despite a horrible prognosis (she was told she would be an invalid), Margaret left the sanitarium, regained her health, and began writing about women’s reproductive rights.

She saw clearly that women’s economic and social equality were tied to their ability to control their own bodies.

In 1916, Margaret opened the first birth control clinic in the US, and was promptly thrown in jail.  Eventually, after nine trips to jail and more than fifty years of tireless work (including gathering funds for initial work on the birth control pill), her efforts were successful.

Today American women have the freedom to decide whether and when to become pregnant.

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