Margaret Sanger

The Mystery of Margaret Sanger

Robyn Toran

Margaret Sanger was born Margaret Louise Higgins on September 14, 1879 in Corning,

New York. She had a humble upbringing and was raised by Catholic parents that were Irish

immigrants. She was the sixth of eleven children and went on to attend Claverack College and

Hudson River Institute. She became a nurse in 1902 and married architect William Sanger. They

went on to have 3 children and settle down in Westchester, New York. When a fire destroyed

their home, they moved down to New York City and that was the conception of her social

activism.

Sanger worked as a visiting nurse in the slums of the East Side and she also got involved

with politics. She became a member of the Women’s Committee of the New York Socialist

Party, as well as being involved in multiple labor strikes. With her strong sense of feminism and

invaluable experience as a nurse, she went on to become the Mother of Birth Control. She was a

contraception advocate after seeing many women in less than optimal conditions forced to suffer

through childbirth, resort to low budget or self-induced abortions, or go through miscarriages.

She established the American Birth Control League (ABCL) which eventually merged with other

organizations to become Planned Parenthood. Her involvement in and passion for the Birth

Control movement seemed only right, but overtime, it was discovered that her intentions were

flawed.

Sanger was found to be a supporter of eugenics and sought to “assist the race toward the

elimination of the unfit." Her policies included a strict immigration policy and only providing

birth control, free family planning services to those she deemed to be able-minded, and required

sterilization of people with mental retardation. In addition to her wildly discriminatory ideas of

eugenics, her writings portrayed a sense of superiority to blacks and other minorities.

Contrary to popular belief, Margaret Sanger did not quite have the best...