Margaret H. Sanger

Born in 1879, Margaret Sanger became a leading advocate for women's reproductive rights. She believed that access to birth control was vital because these rights are the basis of human rights and because she believed that no child should be unwanted or unloved. She founded the birth control movement in the United States and later the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Margaret became inspired to fight for women's rights while practicing nursing for the poor families in New York's lower east side. After seeing the connection between overpopulation and high mortality rates among infants and mothers, she published information regarding contraception in 1914 and fought to overturn both the federal and state "Comstock laws", which prohibited publications about sex and contraception. In 1916, Margaret opened America's first birth control clinic. She also worked to develop family planning efforts worldwide and in 1927 organized the first World Population Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Many later movements have utilized Margaret Sanger's method of "nonviolent civil disobedience", including the civil rights, anti-war, and AIDS-action movements. The year she died, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said, "There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger's early efforts . . . Our sure beginning in the struggle for equality by nonviolent direct action may not have been so resolute without the tradition established by Margaret Sanger and people like her." Margaret Sanger has long inspired many advocates for human rights.

Source: Planned Parenthood About Us
Nursing World Hall of Fame
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Meagan Petersen '07 (mpeterse@wellesley.edu)
Created: November 2004
Last Modified: December 2004
Expires: June 2005