Name: Claudia Arevalo-Lowe

Date: November 19, 1998

Even though the world is filled with women who have not bee recognized or even mentioned some of them are outstanding and have helped to shape parts of the world. Some of these women have been instrumental in the development of this nation. Nonetheless, history, literature, science and every piece of knowledge we are thought from the day we are born is saturated with male figures. We are brought up believing, and worshiping, those incredible, bigger than life men who have made this nation and have given us the truths, morals and values that are to be followed, obeyed and respected. These mighty men have fashioned our destinies through their own expectations, knowledge and biases.

Even though we are grateful to them for their efforts and the sacrifices of their families, we have to recognize that the majority of the rights we enjoy today are the direct result of the actions and pure determinism of a group of women. One of these women stands alone and is one of the most remarkable and courageous women of the twentieth century - Margaret Sanger. Nevertheless, her efforts and ideas were met with resistance. This resistance can be the result of fears and a false morality that somehow has survived until today.

Margaret and others like her have paved the way for women to have the right and opportunity to learn, and choose birth control and the ability to determine the size of their families and their health. On the other hand, we see that as of today, millions of people are still against the same principles she fought so hard for and in some cases, women are still experiencing the lack of information of the past. This desire to keep the information away from women has been transmitted to our youth and is presently undermining the work she and other women have done at the cost of their families, health, and sometimes lives.

Margaret Higgins was born September 14, 1883 in Corning, New York. She was the sixth child out of eleven. For a living, her father did stone statues, was regularly drunk, and did not earn enough money to support his family. Therefore, the responsibility of procuring for the family fell on the mother and the older children.

With the help of her older sisters, Margaret started her education as a nurse in the White Plains’ Hospital in New York, New York. At age 17 and while in school she met William Sanger. In 1900, and after a brief courtship, Sanger tricked Margaret into marrying him by arranging the marriage without her knowing and by his arrangement of the "surprise marriage". As it was a requisite for women to be single, Margaret could not continue with her nursing school when she got married.

After her marriage to William she started to teach, and after a brief teaching carrier she commenced to practice nursing on the Lower East Side of New York City. In this scenario Margaret was confronted with poverty, uncontrolled fertility, and high rates of infant and maternal mortality. Because she strongly believed that every woman had the right to plan the size of her family and that a woman’s body was her own, began her fight for education in the area of birth control. Yet, the politics of the time had a different foundation. It was against the law for a woman to know anything about birth control or how to take care of their bodies. Dissemination of such information was grounds for prosecution and imprisonment. Given Margaret’s ideas and how strongly she felt about being able to enjoy not only sex but the ability to plan a family prompted her to start a fight that eventually took her away from her own children.

After having to administer emergency care to a woman who had suffered a second bad miscarriage, Margaret abandoned her nursing career and started to concentrate her efforts and expertise in fighting legislation and its restrictions on distribution of contraceptive information. This law was known as "The Comstock Law." This law was federal legislation passed in 1873 making the importation and distribution of any device, medicine, or information to prevent pregnancy or to terminate one a crime. The law went even further as also made education of women about the names or consequences of sexually transmitted diseases a punishable offense.

After witnessing how many women were in virtual darkness about their bodies and the inherent right a woman has to take care of her body, in 1914 through massive mailing she circulated the magazine called "The Woman Rebel". As a result of her violation of the law, she was indicated and after hearing the news of her predicament, she fled the country and temporarily moved to Europe. While in Europe, news that her husband had been arrested as the person responsible for the circulation of the magazine reached her. She was not about to let her husband take credit for her grueling efforts and her work. These were not the only bad news Margaret received. Her only daughter was very ill and was dying of pneumonia. Margaret decided to come back to America, spend time with her daughter and stand trial for her magazine and for her actions. Margaret’s daughter died while she was awaiting trial and the death of her daughter was a devastating blow that would take Margaret a long time to recuperate from. The loss of her daughter won a lot of sympathy for Margaret. The end of the trial came in 1916 with her acquittal.

After this experience, on October 16, 1916, she established the first Birth Control Clinic in the Bronsville section of Brooklyn, New York. This time she got arrested and jailed for thirty-days. Notwithstanding her predicament, during these thirty days she organized a school for the inmates of Queens County Penitentiary. The sentence was appealed and she was subsequently released. Due to her actions, a door was opened for physicians to give birth control advice in New York.

From the moment the clinic was open, Margaret, her sister Ethel and a friend, Fama Mendell, walked around the area with information in the form of fliers written in English, Yiddish, and Italian notifying all women that the birth control clinic was open.

One of the most influential forces in Margaret’s life was the clinics she saw in Holland while in that country in 1915. Not only were they beautiful but also well equipped to handle women’s issues. As a result, she modeled her first clinic after the Holland’s clinics. As part of their efforts in getting women to know about their bodies and the medical alternatives for controlling birth, the "What Every Girl Should Know" was issued and distributed around Bronsville. The issue was sold for the amount of ten cents, and included in the price was a lecture on the female reproductive system, and guidance on how to use several contraceptives.

On the first day the clinic opened its doors, over one hundred women showed up. After the first day, and until October 25, more than four hundred women showed up every day. Unfortunately for women, the police enlisted a woman to go into the clinic to gather information to be used against Margaret, Ethel and Fama. As a result of the sting operation from the police, Margaret, her sister Ethel, and her friend Fama were arrested. Margaret found herself back in jail and was released next morning. Because Margaret did not know the meaning of giving up, reopened the clinic on November 14. Of course, she got arrested again, this time being charged with maintaining a public nuisance. Margaret opened the clinic for the third time on November 16. This time, under the duress of the police, the landlord evicted them.

Margaret, Ethel, and Fama were to go on trial on January 1917. The first one to be tried was Ethel, who was sentenced to thirty days in Blackwell’s island prison. As a response to a sentence she considered unfair, Ethel went on a hunger strike. After 185 hours into the hunger strike, she was forcibly fed. Ethel’s situation was steadily deteriorating and there was the danger that it would turn to be a fatal situation. Fearing that Ethel was rapidly reaching this point prompted Margaret, her supporters, and friends to convince the then Governor of New York, Whitman, to pardon Ethel. It was promised that she would not participate in any more activities related to the clinic, dissemination or any action having to do with the movement. Ethel was pardoned and released from jail.

Margaret’ s trial took place on January 29, and the verdict was guilty. Margaret was convicted. Furthermore, she was offered a suspended sentence if she promised not to continue repeating the offenses. Margaret refused the bargain and in turn was told that she had to choose between a fine and jail. Margaret chose jail. She was escorted to Queens County Penitentiary where she spent the thirty days. The last one to be tried was Fama who got a fine of fifty dollars for disturbing the peace.

Consistent with Margaret’s personality is the appeal of her conviction to the Court of Appeals that held the lower court’s decision. Nonetheless, Judge Frederick Crane’s ideas were more liberal than some of his contemporaries and therefore, he allowed "Little Comstock" law to enable physicians for the first time, under the protection of the law, to prescribe anticonceptives for health reasons rather than for venereal diseases only.

Gertrude Pinchot, and other members of the National Birth Control League, organized the Committee of 100 with the purpose of protesting the Brownsville Clinic arrests. Not only did they protest the arrest, but also raised a significant amount of money to aid with the legal costs of the trials. Furthermore, they arranged a meeting between Margaret and Governor Whitman leading to Ethel’s early release from prison. This Committee included women such as Mary Ware Denvett, Rose Pastor Stokes, Crystal Eastman and Juliet Rublee. Among other things they did together after helping Margaret was a successful protest that took place on January 28, 1917 at Carnegie Hall where Margaret addressed a big audience. The committee also published "The Birth Control Movement" booklet, which had the history of the movement, highlights of Margaret’s pioneering work, and a discussion on family limitations. Most importantly, they supported the First American Birth Control Conference in 1921 directly leading to the establishment of the American Birth Control League. (ABCL).

The American Birth Control League (ABCL) was formed on November 10, 1921. The ABCL was established to offer a program of education, legislative reform, and research that would pave the way for Mary Ware Denvett’s Voluntary Parenthood League’s work that succeeded the National Birth Control League.

Margaret’s goal was to build an organization that would reach national proportions and would find representation in each one of the cities of the United States. The ABCL staff and board of directors were the same that "The Birth Control Review" board. The ABCL became a huge organization that was organized as follows:

The New York Women’s Publishing Company was the publisher of "The Birth Control Review" and in 1923, the ABCL took control of the publishing. The organization also consisted of physicians who advised the Clinical Research Bureau on the medical issues and represented the clinic within the medical community. There were approximately fifteen board of directors members who oversaw everything in the organization and elected the Committee that supervised the operations of the clinic. In 1923, the Clinical Research Bureau (CRB) headed by a woman physician, Dr. Dorothy Bocker, and Dr. Hannah Stone later, maintained the medical advisory board. When in 1928 Margaret resigned to the presidency, she asserted full and independent control of the clinic on the Birth Control Research Bureau. In 1925, the Bureau operated a clinic in a predominantly African-American midtown of Columbus Hill. It remained open for nine months.

There was also the Conference Committees, which were formed for each one of the conferences sponsored by the ABCL. Some of the members participated and funded these conferences. Later in 1926, the Congressional Committee was formed and had the objective of lobbying Congress for a federal birth control bill. The lobbying also included the State lobbying in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California. Their Education Department supervised the Publication Department, the Book Department, and the Margaret Sanger Lecture Bureau. They worked actively in education programs organized conferences, and performed mass mailings.

The Margaret Sanger Lecture Bureau, later called simply the Lecture Bureau, arranged the lectures on birth control by Margaret Sanger, James F. Cook, other members and the staff of ABCL. The Motherhood Advice Bureau (MAB) or the Motherhood Department answered thousands of letters received by Margaret with requests for birth control information. The National Council comprised of prominent socialites, religious leaders, and physicians provided respectability and advice to the ABCL. They had very different functions but sometimes advised Margaret on policy questions and fund raisings. The overall members of ABCL were approximately forty-three. These members did not include the members of the different boards mentioned above. Furthermore, all of the Boards and Committees mentioned, became organizations with their own Boards, Committees, members and functions.

Margaret continued with her dissemination and with time and a lot of effort, the movement reached national proportions. The organization still currently operating as "Planned Parenthood Federation of America" and is directed by Margaret’s grandson. Her contributions to women around the world and to society go even further than what is contained within these pages. Her love for a woman’s right to chose and the right to determine how, and in with manner, a woman should treat her body opened the doors for all women who chose to take care of themselves and their health.

Thanks to Margaret’s efforts, the first oral contraceptive was developed and became available to women. This was a very important step in her life and work. She was very pleased with the new contraceptive.

Today, her work and contributions are taken for granted. There is very little information about her work (compared to other works and research), and very little about her life. The book she wrote, Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography (1938) is not in print, and cannot be found in any bookstores. Now days, her legacy reaches not only women but men as well. Even though the majority of people are not aware (or do not know) of Margaret’s plight for women’s right to choose, are doted with several options for birth control and the information and the methods are readily available. This is a very minimal view of a woman, who in her own right was exceptional. She is a remarkable person who deserves the title Margaret the Great. She died on September 6, 1966 in Tucson, Arizona. It will take a book to actually compile her personal life and her work. In the meantime, let us enjoy, and respect, what we have at hand.