Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History, Volume XXIV

Saturday, August 29, 2009
This is Margaret Sanger. She was born September 14, 1897, and died September 6, 1966. Her legacy? Knowledge of and access to birth control for women.

In the early 20th century, Ms. Sanger was working as a nurse in New York City, and was sickened by the number of women she treated due to self-induced abortions. She became a devoted advocate for birth control in this country, opening the first family planning and birth control clinic in the United States. For over forty years, she founded organizations, clinics and political entities that championed this most profound women's health issue.

From her essay for Edward R. Murrow's This I Believe:

I started my battle some forty years ago. The women and mothers whom I wanted to help, also wanted to help me; they, too, wanted to build beyond the self, in creating healthy children and bringing them up in life to be happy and useful citizens. I believed it was my duty to place motherhood on a higher level than enslavement and accident. I was convinced we must care about people; we must reach out to help them in their despair.

For these beliefs I was denounced, arrested, I was in and out of police courts and higher courts, and indictments hung over my life for several years. But nothing could alter my beliefs. Because I saw these as truths, I stubbornly stuck to my convictions.

And I'm thankful that she did stick to those convictions. Voluntary and safe birth control was the single greatest contributor in women's struggle for equality in this country, and it's because of women like Ms. Sanger that I have the dizzying array of choices and opportunities that are her legacy.

Well done, Ms. Sanger. And thank you.

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