Margaret Sanger, born September 14, 1879, New York, the U.S. and she died September 6, 1966, Tucson, Arizona. She is the founder of the birth-control campaign in the United States and an international lead. Margaret Sanger also, a well-known nurse, women’s rights and birth control activist, and sex educator. Also, she is prized for her influence on the birth control campaign and the founding of what is now identified as Planned Parenthood, a national organization that has supported women with their sexual and reproductive health for decades. In the book “Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion” the author, Jean Baker illustrated Margaret Sanger as one of the most substantial advocates for birth control, women's privacy, and freedom in the American …show more content…
history. Margaret Sanger started the birth control movement in America and fought to legalize the use of birth control in the United States and also internationally.According to Baker, Sanger starts publishing articles “complete feminist agenda for women’s right ….with birth control and voluntary motherhood… for a reform intended to give women's sexual autonomy”(Baker 83).
In other words, she is the first person who fights for women's right to make autonomous decisions about their sexuality.To promote her idea, to get more attention and acceptance she joined a movement called “eugenics movement … its expanding networks of journals and associations, its general acceptance among Americans, and even its international connections- represented an opportunity to find friends and join a popular movement”(Baker 146). So using the movement she joined she can address a lot of people in the united states and internationally. Margaret Sanger had made progress toward in the fight for women’s access to birth control. However, her capacity to give both birth control and the information about birth control was restricted by the presence of the “Comstock laws that were promptly passed in twenty-four states … most devastating for [her] as she began her crusade to prevent unwanted pregnancy … birth control had been defined as pornography...”(Baker 68). In other words, the Comstock laws were the first legislation to deal with contraceptives explicitly, and they described contraceptives as offensive …show more content…
and prohibited. Sanger also convinced people around the world that using birth control is not only about avoiding unplanned pregnancy; it is freedom or essential human rights for women.
This fundamental right Sanger fights is women of all economic statuses have the right to their body and to give them the awareness they needed to make informed decisions on the use of birth control. When Sanger nursing in the clinic, she is very concerned about her patient's life. “Some women tried to save a few dollars by inserting wires and hangers… or ingesting the abortification ...”(Baker 49). In another word, due to the illegal practice and improper medication for abortion, many women lost their lives, and also other women put their lives in danger. Therefore, the basic question for this women is also “what can [they] do to prevent getting [pregnant] again?” (Baker 49).In 1916, when Sanger started the birth control clinic, she faces a lot of criticism from including jail with her coworkers. “Sanger and her staff, including her sister Ethel, were arrested during a raid of the Brooklyn clinic nine days after it opened. They were charged with providing information on contraception and fitting women for diaphragms”(Baker 117). In other words, Sanger goes beyond her limits including breaking the law to show Americans and the world women have the basic right. After she released from prison, Sanger established birth control movement, and she starts her fight for women's freedom again. Sanger considered that
the movement could put an end to a lot of problems that women faced and would be a correct way for all woman to herd their voice and difficulties. Therefore, Sanger struggled for the legalization of birth control, and she used many different strategies to get the word attention and gain support from the public. This illustrates how Margaret Sanger convinced Americans and people around the world about women's right. Sanger faced a lot of outrage from different sides on her idea and movement. The Catholic Church and civil authorities in major cities in the U.S. made every effort they could to silence Sanger. When Sanger starts her birth control campaign “the Roman Catholic hierarchy condemned birth control as sinful...” (Baker 139). In other words, the Catholic theologians believe that the purpose and primary end of marriage is to give rise to children. When the marriage relation is become impossible to fulfill of its purposes, that is by birth control; birth control is used unethically and unnaturally. Therefore, Sanger faces many challenges from Catholic Church including “a priest termed her birth control movement ‘a cult’ …. Boycott vendors who sold her magazine”(Baker 140). On the other hand, Sanger faces racial and ethnicity challenges from civil authorities. Some of the accusations on Sanger are “Police gave damaging, false testimony that the clinic was intended to destroy the Jewish race and besides was money making operation”(Baker 121).and also “Marcus Garvey … founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association … cautioned the birth control interfaced with the course of nature and … limit the number of blacks”(Baker 201). In other words, the accusers believe Sanger wanted to rid the world of people she considered undesirable (Black, poor, Jewish ...) using abortion as a too. The challenge Singer face is a lot, but it does not stop her from her advocacy of birth control. She is great advocacy for women's privacy and freedom in American history. Like most public figures, Margaret Sanger's beliefs and actions have created controversy among many different groups of people. When Sanger started the movement and fought for birth control, she was associated with many powerful groups of peoples with rather radical groups who advocated birth control as a means of population control. However, Sanger changed the lives of women with her advocacy for birth control. She does not only give them the option of birth control, but she educated them to fight for their freedom to decide on their sexuality. She made great progress in the United States in order to make birth control legalized. In her advocacy, she faces and wins many challenges from religious groups and civil authorities.
Dorothy Wardell’s article titled “Margaret Sanger: Birth Control’s Successful Revolutionary” explains what inspired Sanger ideas on contraception and what problems she faced while working to change the notions and laws on Birth Control. The central argument presented by Wardell is that Sanger’s efforts led to privileges for women’s bodies and health centers providing methods for women to act on these privileges (Wardell, 736). Although Wardell is effective in supporting her argument, it would be stronger if she included some historical context and evidence of Sanger’s opinion in her own words found in a speech of hers and in Family Limitation. Wardell begins by addressing that “…a definitive biography and assessment has yet to be written.”,
Rita Crundwell was the trusted comptroller and treasurer of Dixon, Illinois with a passion for horses. She took advantage of her trust and responsibility to commit the largest known municipal fraud in the history of the United States. This fraudster has surprised and astounded people around the world by the amount of the fraud and for how long it went. Rita served the small town of Dixon from 1983 to 2012 until sentenced to nearly twenty years in federal prison for embezzling an astonishing $53.7 million. The story of this Dixon Commissioner shocked her small town and is studied by auditors all over.
Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age where Sanger presented this speech, November 1921, women were considered very far from equal and much closer to servants or maids. In her speech, I saw that ethos was present in the sense that she gave herself credibility. Through Sanger’s detailed words and actions, and her statements including the presence of scientists and, or, professionals, the masses of listening people could infer that she was very well informed and solid in her statements. Though she presented herself as agreeable, Sanger was firm in her beliefs. In addition, Sanger says, “We desire to stop at its source the disease, poverty and feeble-mindedness and insanity which exist today, for these lower the standards of civilization and make for race deterioration. We know that the masses of people are growing wiser and are using their own minds to decide their individual conduct” (Sanger, par.15). To me, Sanger made herself appeal to the audience by using the word ‘we.’ In the practice of ethos, this focused on the author more than...
...still a vital part of world today. Planned Parenthood is not segregated to color or affluence and has definitely changed the world as we know it today. Margaret Sanger though a determined selfish women did not get everything the way she wanted it to be. She hung up fliers in immigrant neighborhoods just so the poor or colored would go to the clinic. She wanted these people to go to the birth control clinics so they couldn’t reproduce. Margaret believed that if you couldn’t support the family you already have you shouldn’t have more children and she was a strong believer that the inferior race should not be able to reproduce. All of Mrs. Sanger’s actions said more then what her voice said. Margaret Sanger was a powerful strong woman who was celebrated as an advocate of women’s rights; however her motives were for all the wrong reasons.
them to have an identity that separates from their spouses. Birth control helped shift slightly the balance of power from only being masculine to shared between the sexes. Margaret did so much to bring the issue of birth control and its benefits in to the for fount in her time. Her writings and actions better the lives of women in America then, and today more then ever. Margaret Sanger wrote the woman "...must emerge from her ignorance and assume her responsibility..." of her own body and "...the first step is Birth Control. Through Birth Control [the woman] will attain voluntary motherhood. Having attained this, the basic freedom of her sex, [the woman] will cease to enslave herself…[the woman] will not stop at patching up the world; she will remake it" (Sanger A 36).
Margaret Sanger was the founder of The American League of Birth Control which later became Planned Parenthood and her argument in those times was that it was not fair for women who were from a lower class could not have access to Birth Control.
Both sources approach an issue from a different demographic, the married young housewife and the of age generation in the roaring twenties respectively. If we compare intent, we see Sanger's is a politically motivated piece seeking empathy compared to what appears to be a balanced study from New Girls for Old. Therefore the more representative source is that of the uninfluenced survey, while we can't discount that they are selectively chosen; in comparison to Sanger's selected testimonials are likely the most pressing and emotive letters written to her. This contrasting factor of intent also leads to their influence varying, as Engelman presents it was Sanger's pivotal activist role that when combined with the radicals, socialites and professionals that led to the successive progress of the birth control movement as one of the few women led social movements i...
One of the most important roles that a nurse fulfills as a responsibility of the profession is the advocate. Nurses are responsible to provide the information needed for a patient to make a decision and consequently support that decision. Margaret Sanger was one of the most influential advocates for women’s health and sexual health in general. Margaret Sanger was a public health nurse in New York who noticed that there was a significant problem in the way that women were treated within the healthcare system. Through her efforts she started what is today known as Planned Parenthood, defeated laws preventing the distribution of contraceptives and information regarding contraceptives,
The Roaring Twenties were known as a time of economic boom, pop culture and social developments. This was a time when women began to break norms, they acted rebelliously such as wearing releveling clothing, smoking, and drinking. These women were known as “flappers” who wanted to change their roles in the 1920’s. Birth control activist, Margaret Sanger sought to change the world where women had access to a low cost, effective contraception pill. In “The Morality of Birth Control” Sanger battled opponents who claimed that contraception would cause women to become immoral. The author uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and fallacies to back up her claim while touching on issues in the church, advancements of women, and the source of disease in the world.
Margaret Sanger’s monthly publication The Woman Rebel released its first issue in 1914, creating a nationwide dispute concerning the publication and distribution of birth control devices. However, Sanger’s initial goal went beyond simply legalizing the distribution of contraceptives; her aim was to create “radical social change, embracing the liberation of women and of the working class” (6, 1.120). In document one, the essay “Why the Woman Rebel?” Sanger makes a strong political statement on the social implications of legalizing birth control. Drawing heavily from the plight of the working class Sanger makes her case on the grounds that the legalization of birth control is the first step to the liberation of the disenfranchised working class at the hands of capitalism. The essay is a rebellious prose intended to inspire “revolt”, a call to arms for the case for birth control. Later in Sanger’s care...
Margaret Sanger’s first order of business in her attempt to claim women’s rights to sexual freedom was to alter the church’s thoughts and ideals regarding the use of contraception. In 1916, when she began her revolutionary crusade, contraception was not only condemned by the Catholic Church, but by many sects of Christianity. After much effort, the year 1930 brought success to Margaret Sanger and her cohorts. It was at this point that the Church of England accepted the use of contraception in certain circumstances, and only between married couples (Contraception History). This victory by Sanger and her organization, Planned Parenthood, was followed by a wave of acceptance among many denominations for contraceptive use among married couples, and then among single adults. The aftermath of Sanger’s efforts influenced much of the world to changing i...
Sanger, one of the pioneers of modern birth control, founded Planned Parenthood which was an
No other element of the Women’s Rights Movement has generated as much controversy as the debate over reproductive rights. As the movement gained momentum so did the demand for birth control, sex education, family planning and the repeal of all abortion laws. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision which declared abortion "fundamental right.” The ruling recognized the right of the individual “to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” (US Supreme Court, 1973) This federal-level ruling took effect, legalizing abortion for all women nationwide.
Birth Control has always been a topic of controversy in America, generating large opposition and actions to regulate it. The regulation of any form of birth control was made final with the Comstock Act being passed in 1873 that was a, “federal law that made it a crime to sell or distribute materials that could be used for contraception or abortion”. This act created by and enacted by Anthony Comstock, caused a long and troubling path for feminists attempting to break the patriarchal society and gain the freedom to control their own bodies and choices. The virdict was supported throughout the years and by the 1950s many opinions of religious people, political persons, and most men who accepted traditional gender roles continued on the path of
During the early 1900s, American nurse Margaret Sanger led the birth-control movement in the United States. She and others opened clinics to provide women with information and devices. Although frequently jailed, she and her followers were instrumental in getting laws changed. In subsequent years, laws against birth control gradually weakened, and more effective methods were developed.