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Happy Birthday Margaret Sanger!!!

14 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by estherkatz in Birth Control, Events

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birth control, birthday, margret sanger

Margaret Sanger,  who would have been 136 years old today, would no doubt be shocked to learn we are still fighting the battle for Pensive sangerreproductive rights, or that she has become a pawn in this endless battle. As Imani Gandy point out in her recent, excellent Reality Check article (http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/08/20/false-narratives-margaret-sanger-used-shame-black-women/) notes that as “anti-choice fanatics seem utterly incapable of making an honest argument that Black women should be forced into childbirth rather than permitted to make their own decisions about what to do with their bodies, they resort to lies, misinformation, and half-truths about Sanger and the organization she founded.”

Yet we could not have come even this far without the dedication, spirit and the willingness of Margaret Sanger to dedicate her life to make certain that all women would have access to effective and readily available contraceptive knowledge and tools. She knew the extent of the struggle and understood that success would be achieved quickly or easily. But she was guided by determination. “We must unite in the task of creating an instrument of steel, strong but supple,” she wrote, “if we are to triumph finally in the war for human emancipation.” (Pivot of Civilization, 1922).

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Birth Control Review: A communication tactic

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by E Coleman in Birth Control, Birth Control Review, Eugenics, Sanger

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birth control, Birth Control Review, Censorship, margret sanger, reproductive rights, women

BCRAugCover1926Margaret Sanger began publishing the Birth Control Review in 1917 as a means to help build a birth control movement. By 1921 the monthly journal had become the official organ of the American Birth Control League, and included news of birth control activities, articles by scholars, activists, and writers on birth control, and reviews of books and other publications. The Review even included art and fiction in the form of cartoons, poetry and short stories.

Karla K. Gower and Vanessa Murphree recently published “Making Birth Control Respectable” in American Journalism, an article that looked at underlying messages about eugenics and Neo-Malthusianism (overpopulation) found in the Review.

To understand how eugenics and population were treated by the Review,  it is important to understand the context in which the journal appeared. Gower and Murprhee argue that the topic of birth control was not publicly acceptable in the 1920s. Anything that related to reproduction was thought to belong in the private sphere. Public discussion of such matters made people uncomfortable. The Gower and Murphree argue that women were “relegated to the home” and were expected to uphold the virtues of the cult of domesticity–piety, purity, submission and domesticity.[1] Thus, birth control was seen as taboo.

Mailing information about birth control was also illegal, thanks to the 1873 Comstock Act, which made it a federal offense to send information about contraceptives in the mail.  The Comstock Act also inspired states to further criminalize birth control.  Gower and Murphree indicated that fourteen states prohibited the verbal transmission of information about contraception or abortion, while eleven others made possession of instructions for the prevention of pregnancy a criminal offense.[2]

MorningOregonian_MS at Heilig

Page of the Morning Oregonian, published in June 1916. “Censorship is Attacked.”

But this did not stop Sanger and the American Birth Control League from mailing out the Review, though it probably had some impact the kinds of material the journal published.  The main goal of the Review was to secure public support for birth control, to attract the support of doctors, legislators, academics, and the middle class and wealthy society women who formed the backbone of local birth control leagues.

This is where the undertones of eugenics and Neo-Malthusianism come in.

Sanger understood that there needed to be political accommodation in order to publish material on birth control. The Comstock Act, along with similar state laws, still existed. So Sanger and her supporters had to find a way to disseminate the information that they needed to without engaging in a full on battle with the law.

The answer lay in appealing to a greater audience and breaking their belief that birth control was a taboo. This audience was the white middle and upper classes.

But why would the BCR want to reach these classes? Were not most of the writings concerned with the impoverished classes, the women who could not afford to have undesired children?

In Sanger’s autobiography, My Fight for Birth Control, she writes:

The answer was to make the club women, the women of wealth and intelligence, use their power and money and influence to obtain freedom and knowledge for the women of the poor. The women of leisure must listen. The women of wealth must give. The women of influence must protest.

(p. 191)

(For more on this subject see, “Women of Wealth and Influence.”)

Sanger concluded that although it was working class women who needed the most aid, it was the “club women” who would have the necessary influence and resources to promote the birth control movement.

Although the article demonstrates that the subject of eugenics in the BCR was a matter of tactic, it is important to note that
for Sanger, eugenics wasn’t just a strategy.

Eugenic theory developed in the United States during the early twentieth century. Individuals, including Margaret Sanger, believed that there were certain ways to promote a healthier population. Sanger, in particular, established ideas on when women should avoid giving birth. These ideas included women being at least 22 years old so that she can “attain a ripe physical and mental development” and when she is working since “society remains indifferent to the needs of her offspring and forces them to toil in mills and factories.

(Vol. 1: The Woman Rebel, 1900-1928, p.243-244)

The BCR was a magazine serving as a publication to discuss the justifications of birth control.[3] The upper class readers of these stories would have emotional reactions to reading the unfortunate stories and letters of poor women.[4]

By speaking to this audience, the topic of birth control would be public and legal with social changes could come to fruition.

What this audience tended to want to  hear during this time were discussions on eugenics and Neo-Malthusianism.

These topics concerned the strengthening of gene pools and the controlling of overpopulation, respectively. More importantly, the supporters of both were concerned with quality over quantity.[5]

Does this sound familiar?

Quite. Think about the BCR and the birth control movement in general. The primary goals included decreasing the number of undesired births in poorer populations in order to improve the quality of life for the poorer families.

Now, Sanger and the BCR editors had to be careful about using eugenics to further promote birth control in the public sphere. The idea was not to make greater white middle and upper class families, rather, the intersection of these movements was to support the idea to ensure that families had the right to control the size of their family and that women had the right to control their bodies.[6]

The following excerpt describes the general perspective on eugenics in the birth  control movement:

Margaret Sanger and leaders of the birth control movement, predominantly women, believed that people should be empowered, by education, to make choices to limit their own reproduction. In a society that frowned on open discussion of sexuality and where physicians knew little about the biology of reproduction, Sanger advocated that mothers be given access to the scientific information needed to thoughtfully plan conception.

(Eugenics Archive)

(For more on eugenics in the birth control movement see, “Birth Control and Eugenics: Uneasy Bedfellows?”)

The conclusion of this intersection, in the perspective of the BCR, was that the access to knowledge about contraceptives and effective family spacing would give women the ability to “eliminate the unfit [population].”[7]

Cover of the BCR published in February 1926. Slogan, "Fewer Children Better Born," suggests that birth control would lead to a healthier population.

Cover of the BCR published in February 1926. Slogan, “Fewer Children Better Born,” suggests that birth control would lead to a healthier population.

In addition to addressing the question of  increasing an “unfit” population, there was the question of overpopulation.

Neo-Malthusians supported using scientific advancement, in this case birth control, to impede the growing world population as it was assumed to be constrained by inadequate food production.

Sanger, after hearing a speech given by Frank Vanderlip concerning the growing population of Europe and their possible reliance on American food sources, saw the potential in incorporating this argument in the birth control movement.[8]

Though Murphree and Gower emphasize that the inclusion of Neo-Malthusian ideals was a way to reach a broader range of supporters, it is important to understand that Margaret Sanger’s ideas had been influenced by the Neo-Maltusian movement. In 1914, Sanger found herself in England being introduced to the leaders of the Malthusian League. This is where she first learned of the advocacy for using artificial contraception to control population growth. The League’s program gave Sanger new arguments that would increase the appeal of the legalization of birth control
(Vol 1: The Woman Rebel, 1900-1928, p. 94.)

So you see? Both the incorporation of eugenics and neo-Malthusian ideas were also communication tactics!

Sanger effectively used the appeal of the eugenics and overpopulation movements to further the birth control movement.

What was the BCR able to communicate with these associations?

Everything converged to demonstrate that birth control would give women the liberty to control their bodies and therefore, control the number of children they had. This would naturally lead to a healthier population.

Everyone would hopefully be content.


[1] Gower, Karla K. & Vanessa Murphree. “Making Birth Control Respectable.” American Journalism 30,2 (2013) : 213.

[2]McFarlane, Deborah & Kenneth J. Meier. The Politics of Fertility Control. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001, 30.

[3] Gower, Karla K. & Vanessa Murphree. “Making Birth Control Respectable.” American Journalism 30,2 (2013) : 219.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., 227.

[6]Birth Control Review, June 125, front cover.

[7] “Birth Control the True Eugenics–Mothers Who Refuse to Bear Unfit Children,” Birth Control Review, August 1926, 248.

[8] Gower, Karla K. & Vanessa Murphree. “Making Birth Control Respectable.” American Journalism 30,2 (2013) : 233.

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Margaret Sanger’s Views on Abortion

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by sangerpapers in Abortion, Document, In Her Words, Myths, Sanger

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Abortion, document, margret sanger, reproductive rights

Sanger’s Flyer for the first Birth Control Clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. “Do not kill, do not take a life, but Prevent”

Margaret Sanger was a pioneer of women’s reproductive rights, dedicating her life to opening family planning clinics around the world and making knowledge about birth control easily available. When Sanger began her life as an activist, the political struggle over women’s rights was very different than it is today. The Comstock Laws that Sanger was arrested for violating illegalized merely sending information regarding birth control in the mail! With that in mind, it comes as little surprise that Sanger’s views do not fit easily into today’s debate about women’s reproductive rights. Sanger was ambivalent, to say the least, about  most important issue in recent years : access to abortions.

In Sanger’s opinion, abortion was an evil practice that would become obsolete once birth control was practiced and understood by women and families throughout the world. In 1932, Sanger wrote: “Although abortion may be resorted to in order to save the life of the mother, the practice of it merely for limitation of offspring is dangerous and vicious.” Although she strongly condemned the practice, she felt even more strongly that “it is  a woman’s duty and right to have for herself the right to say when she shall and shall not have children.”  Women’s right to control their reproduction took precedent over any moral or religious position. Unlike many today, Sanger trusted women to make the best decision for themselves:

“The only weapon that women have and the most uncivilized weapon that they have to use if they will not submit to having children every year or every year and a half, the weapon they use is abortion. . . . What does this mean? It means it is a very bad sign if women have to indulge in it, and it means they are absolutely determined that they cannot continue bringing children into the world that they cannot clothe, feed, and shelter. It is woman’s instinct, and she knows herself when she should and should not give birth to children, and it is just as natural to trust that instinct and to let her be the one to say and much more natural than it is to leave it to some unknown God for her to judge her by.”(MS, “Debate On Birth Control: First Speech,” Dec. 12, 1920 [MSM S76:0923 ].)

If you are interested in reading more about Margaret Sanger’s position on abortion, be sure to read our “interview” with Sanger in the Margaret Sanger Paper Project Newsletter!

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Sanger’s Boardwalk Empire Cameo

24 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by Jill Grimaldi in Document

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birth control, condoms, contraception, documents, family limitations, lysol, margret sanger, pregnancy, reproductive health, reproductive rights

One of Margaret Sanger’s earlier publications, a copy of Family Limitation, recently made an appearance on the new HBO show, Boardwalk Empire. When a character on the show, who also happens to be named Margaret, is worried about being pregnant, she pulls out the Sanger pamphlet.  The Margaret Sanger Papers Project Microfilm has a run of the oft-revised  pamphlet, and the project has an original of the 1920 10th Edition run of this pamphlet and thought it might be fun to reproduce some of it here for interested readers.

“Every mother feels the wrong that the state imposes upon her when it deprives her of information to prevent the bringing into the world of children she cannot feed or clothe or care for.” (Page 1)

“I feel there is sufficient information given here which, if followed, will prevent a woman from becoming pregnant unless she desires to do so.” (Page 1)

Some of the subject headers may seem a bit unnecessary in these times, but back then pamphlets like this were invaluable. For instance, “DOUCHE A CLEANSER – NOT A PREVENTATIVE” (Page 7) seems like a fairly obvious statement to make now, but back then many women douched with Lysol, who’s advertisements were coded to sneakily imply that a Lysol douche was a valid method of contraception.

For example, one advertisement shows a relaxed and happy looking mother surrounded by her two children. At one point the copy printed along with the advertisement says, “this effective antiseptic is three times stronger than powerful carbolic acid.” This is a hidden message meant to imply contraceptive use, since  carbolic acid was commonly known to kill sperm at the time when this pamphlet was published.

This fact is even mentioned in the pamphlet, on page 16, where Sanger writes, “the male sperm is destroyed by the weakest solution of carbolic acid.” This statement is made in reference to a tip included in the pamphlet that advises women to use a contraceptive sponge or “cotton plug” soaked in carbolic acid and glycerin to prevent pregnancy.

Earlier in the pamphlet Sanger dismisses douching with carbolic acid as a wise contraceptive option because, “When one understands how conception takes place, it can be seen at once that it is quite possible for a woman to be in a state of pregnancy before she leaves the bed, or before she can reach a douche.” (Page 7)

Although the practical information in the pamphlet may be somewhat outdated in our modern times (for instance, we no longer use carbolic acid as a method of birth control at all), many sentiments expressed within are timeless. For instance:

“Don’t wait to see if you no not menstruate (monthly sickness) but make it your duty to see that you do.” (Page 5)

“Women must learn to know their own bodies and watch and know definitely how regular or irregular they are.” (Page 5)

“No one can doubt that there are times where an abortion is justifiable but they will become unnecessary when care is taken to prevent contraception. This is the only cure for abortions.” (Page 5)

“There is current among people an idea that conception can take place only at certain times of the month. […] Do not depend upon this belief, for there is no scientific foundation for it.” (Page 6)

“A mutual and satisfied sexual act is of great benefit to the average woman, the magnetism of it is health giving. When it is not desired on the part of the woman and she has no response, it should not take place.” (Page 7)

We will leave you with some scans from the document.

Further Reading:

1917 6th Edition of Family Limitation by Margaret Sanger.
Jersey Shore, The Early Years by Alessandra Stanley from the New York Times, September 16th 2010.

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How you can help

The Sanger Papers is a non-profit organization (501(c)3), hosted by New York University. Almost all project expenses are covered by grants and private donations. For more information, see our website, or make a donation online today!

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