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She Takes a Stand

16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World

Chicago Review Press Incorporated

MARGARET SANGER

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"Woman Must Not Accept; She Must Challenge"

"I was resolved to seek out the root of the evil, to do something to change the destiny of mothers whose miseries were as vast as the sky." — Margaret Sanger

During the month she spent in prison in 1917, Margaret Sanger refused to see herself as a victim. As always she was an observer, and she wrote about the inequities she witnessed. Unlike male prisoners, female convicts were not allowed to write letters or read newspapers. Many of her fellow female inmates were being jailed indefinitely for minor offenses and were too poor to hire lawyers to challenge their detention. Margaret lost 15 pounds due to being fed a diet of only bread and molasses, with an occasional stew. Though she suffered from fatigue resulting from her chronic tuberculosis, Margaret summoned the energy to counsel the women in prison on sexual matters, as well as to teach illiterate inmates to read and write. When she was released, 200 friends and supporters greeted her by singing "La Marseillaise," the anthem of American radicals.

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Margaret was born September 14, 1879, in a small run-down cottage on the outskirts of Corning, New York. She was the sixth child of her Irish American parents, Anne and Michael Higgins. Like many other Irish immigrants, both of their families had left Cork, Ireland, during the Great Famine in the late 1840s. So many immigrants from Cork had settled in Corning that one neighborhood was known as Corktown.

Margaret's father supported the family by cutting and adorning headstones. Margaret was raised more by her older sisters than her mother, who was always either pregnant or nursing a baby and constantly fatigued by overwork and illness. At age eight, Margaret (called Maggie by family members) assumed her older sisters' duties as they married and left home. She helped her mother with the care of her younger sister, Ethel, and four younger brothers. Each day she minded a big pot of soup, the family's daily meal, and assisted her mother with the extra laundry they took in to make ends meet.

Her father, Michael Higgins, was a storyteller and rabble-rouser with strong views about the rights of workers and what he saw as the evils of capitalism and the tyranny of the Catholic Church. As a result of his views, one Christmastime when Maggie tried to join some other children at the Parish Hall, a priest turned her away, calling her the "child of the Devil." When Michael invited a popular and controversial orator to speak in Corning, the pastor of the Catholic church convinced officials to lock the doors of the town's only public hall. Undaunted, Michael took Maggie by the hand as he led the audience to a clearing in the woods, where the speech was delivered from a tree stump. Maggie was greatly influenced by the way her father questioned authority and the way he urged her to develop her own ideas.

Maggie's classmates teased her for wearing hand-me-down clothes, but she ignored them. Michael Higgins taught his children to hold their heads high and to consider themselves as people who were special. He encouraged them to take on challenges. Maggie understood this to mean challenges that were physical as well as social. One day she decided to walk across the long railroad bridge spanning the Chemung River. When she was halfway across, a train approached. Maggie stumbled, fell through a gap in the tracks, and hung precariously above the river as the train rumbled overhead. Luckily a passing boatman came to her rescue.

A bright, hardworking student, Maggie was undaunted by having to study in her chaotic and cramped house. Her older sisters paid her tuition to Claverack College, a coeducational boarding school, where Maggie blossomed. She was fascinated with her studies, which varied from drama and art to economics and literature. Maggie became a leader among her classmates, even though most of them came from wealthier families. A keen observer, she learned how to dress, style her hair, dance, and serve tea like her fellow students. Fun loving and full of curiosity, she attracted followers who once joined her in breaking a school rule to traipse off to a dance in the nearby town.

Margaret's wonderful experiences at school abruptly ended when her sisters were no longer able to pay the tuition. Without a college degree Margaret would have to postpone her goal of attending medical school. After an unpleasant year teaching at a school in New Jersey, where she had a class with 84 students, Margaret went home to care for her dying mother in 1899. At 49 years of age, Anne Higgins was succumbing to tuberculosis.

Margaret felt bitter. She felt her mother's 18 pregnancies and 11 childbirths in 22 years, as well as her never-ending chores, had sent her to an early grave. Deciding not to live that kind of life, Margaret left Corning hoping never to return. With the help of one of her Claverack friends she gained admission to the nursing school at White Plains Hospital. Margaret reasoned that with a nursing degree she could support herself, and she could go to medical school after she had saved enough money for tuition.

Margaret excelled at nursing from the start. During her first year she was appointed head nurse of a six-bed ward. Obstetrics became her specialty, and she delivered babies on her own. However, the long hours took their toll. During one three-day period she slept only four hours. She lost weight, looked as pale as her patients, experienced afternoon fevers and night sweats: Margaret had tuberculosis. Her health improved in the spring of 1901 when a physician removed some of her swollen lymph nodes.

At a dance one year later she met handsome William Sanger, a draftsman and artist who was studying to become an architect. Like her father, William denounced capitalism and saw salvation in socialism. Like the Higginses, his parents were immigrants, two of the many Jews who had left Germany, where William was born.

That following summer, in August 1902, William and Margaret married. Because it was forbidden for nursing students to be married, Margaret had to cut her studies short once more. She could not earn certification as a registered nurse, and she left equipped with a diploma as only a practical nurse. By Christmas she was pregnant. Her tuberculosis flared up, and the doctor recommended rest in a cold climate. Margaret started treatment at a sanatorium in Saranac, New York. She slowly improved during her six months there, but she grew bored and returned to the Bronx in time to give birth to their son Stuart in 1903. After Stuart's birth Margaret suffered a relapse and returned to Saranac for another year.

Margaret began a life as mother and wife in a suburb when the family moved north of New York City to Hastings-on-the-Hudson. In 1908 she gave birth to another son, Grant, and two years later a daughter, Peg, was born. Soon after Peg's birth Margaret realized she needed more in life than being a suburban mother and wife. At her insistence they sold their home and in 1910, just before Christmas, moved to New York City. Margaret worked as a visiting nurse in Manhattan's Lower East Side, and she soon established her own practice in obstetrics, delivering babies and caring for mothers and babies after the birth.

Many of the mothers Margaret treated wanted to know how to prevent further pregnancies. Wishing she knew more, Margaret answered as best as she could. Then one night in the summer of 1912 Margaret was called in to help 28-year-old Sadie Sachs, who had a serious infection after a self-inflicted abortion. After recovery Sadie wanted to know what she could do to prevent another pregnancy. She had three children and didn't want any more. The doctor laughed and told her not to sleep with her husband.

Months later Margaret was called back to the Sachses' apartment. Pregnant again, Sadie had once again tried to abort the baby. This time, despite Margaret's care, she died, leaving behind an anguished husband and three children.

Margaret was distraught. "I resolved that women should have the knowledge of contraception," she later said. "I would tell the world what was going on in the lives of these poor women, I would be heard. No matter what it cost. I would be heard."

Margaret started writing a column, "The Woman's Page," for the New York Call, and she gave speeches at open-air meetings. In the Sunday edition she wrote a column called "What Every Mother Should Know" that addressed sex education and what approaches to take with different ages of children. Eventually her discussions of male and female anatomy, birth control, and sexually transmitted diseases prompted the New York Times to label her "an enemy of the young."

Margaret and William, known as Bill, now socialized with a crowd in Greenwich Village that included writers, artists, publishers, socialites, and social activists. Bill soon lost interest in this group, but Margaret was thrilled by the fervor and intelligence of her new friends. In turn, her exuberance and passion for change attracted attention. Like her father, Margaret enjoyed being listened to and, also like him, she would become a leader. Bill and Margaret drifted apart as she spent more time away from home.

In 1914 Margaret started her own magazine, The Woman Rebel, which bore the masthead "No gods. No masters." She intended it to be a rallying cry for women to rise up to demand change. In this forum, she could express her thoughts freely. She published articles about sex education, unequal pay for women, and contraception, using the term birth control for the first time in print.

"A woman's body belongs to herself alone. It does not belong to the United States of America or any other nation on earth," Margaret wrote in arguing for contraception. Some people responded to her writings with interest and support, but others responded with disgust. It didn't take long for the US Postal Service, as enforcer of the Comstock Law, to confiscate copies of The Woman Rebel. And not long after, a warrant was served for Margaret's arrest. The charges were serious enough to land her in prison for up to 40 years.

As she awaited trial, Margaret took an even more radical step by publishing the pamphlet Family Limitation. Dry as the title may seem today, it was sure to provoke authorities. The pamphlet contained detailed articles on birth control devices, using medical terms such as penis and vagina. Articles that discussed female sexuality were a direct confrontation with the law. Even though the pamphlet was printed and sold in secret it soon reached the hands of thousands of women desperate for the information and ideas Margaret provided.

"Jail has not been my goal. There is special work to do and I shall do it first," wrote Margaret to her supporters before fleeing the country for exile in England. Bill joined her for a short period, and the children were at boarding school. When Bill returned to the States, he lived in his art studio. Bill and other supporters secretly dispensed copies of Family Limitation. On September 15, 1915, Bill was tried for distributing obscene materials and sentenced to a month in prison. Now both he and Margaret were a cause célèbre.

Margaret returned in mid-October ready to face her trial. A month later their five-year-old daughter, Peg, suddenly died from pneumonia. Bill and Margaret were devastated, as was seven-year-old Grant, who had lost his closest family member. With the trial approaching, Margaret's passion for her cause distracted her from her grief.

The trial was now a political hot potato for the prosecutor and judge. A story of her impending trial with a photograph of Margaret with Stuart and Grant had been published in newspapers across the country. Margaret's demure appearance and her recent loss of a child ensured her the status of a martyr who would gain even more support if convicted of the trumped-up charges. The government dropped the case. Margaret hit the road to drum up more support by giving 119 speeches in cities across the country.

Well aware that public opinion about birth control was shifting, Margaret decided her next step was to open a birth control clinic, defying a New York law that prohibited providing information about birth control. Located in Brooklyn, the clinic opened on October 16, 1916. Staffed by Margaret; her sister, Ethel, now a nurse; and other colleagues, it was the first clinic in the United States dedicated to women's reproductive health.

Women flocked to the new clinic, joined by the press. The police came for Margaret 10 days later. With dramatic flair she refused to ride in the police wagon and marched with a crowd of her supporters to the jail one mile away. After being released on bail to await her trial, Margaret opened a new clinic in a different location, and she was arrested once more. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail, making her a martyr for the cause. Meanwhile her relationship with Bill Sanger came to an end, and Margaret asked for a divorce.

For five years Margaret had been dreaming of a pill that would prevent pregnancy. In 1917 this dream moved closer to a reality. While giving a speech in Boston she met Katharine McCormick, a wealthy biologist and suffragist. Katharine shared Margaret's dreams, and the two women became close friends.

To better educate the public about birth control and to build support for overturning the Comstock Law Margaret started a new journal, the Birth Control Review. The front page of the first issue featured an article titled, "Should We Break the Law?" It cited Moses, Christ, Joan of Arc, and abolitionists as examples of lawbreakers who were "beacons of light for human progress."

Four years later, in 1921, Margaret established the American Birth Control League, which would later become the Planned Parenthood Federation.

No longer in a marriage, Margaret was enjoying her freedom. Many men pursued her, but she wasn't persuaded to marry again until she met J. Noah Slee, a 60-year-old divorced man. Noah had made a fortune managing the successful Three-in-One Oil Company, which made a popular lubricant for everything from bicycles to sewing machines to hinges. He was kind to Margaret, attentive to her son Grant, and showered her with gifts. Soon they fell in love and were married on September 18, 1922. The next year Margaret opened the first legal birth control clinic in the country by using a loophole in the law that allowed her to offer contraception for health reasons. Located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, the clinic was staffed by female physicians and social workers.

Margaret fervently sought more followers. In one case, she made a poor choice when she tried to enlist supporters of eugenics. This controversial philosophy advocated for the "improvement" of the genetic makeup of the human race through supporting higher reproduction of classes or cultures its followers deemed as having "good" traits and reducing reproduction of classes or cultures with traits they considered "bad."

Mainstream eugenicists rejected Margaret's ideas, but attempting to associate with them was a dangerous strategy. Like many of them, she supported controlling population growth and reducing the frequency of undesirable genetic attributes, such as hereditary diseases. Unlike them, however, Margaret did not support the idea of decreasing populations of certain ethnic groups such as Jews or African Americans. Unfortunately, not all her writings on the subject were clearly thought out, and some of her allies lost respect for her. Some of her statements provided fodder to anti-birth control adversaries who sought to destroy her reputation.

From the 1920s through the late 1930s Margaret wrote five books with combined sales of almost one million copies. In 1951 she had a chance meeting with biologist and researcher Dr. Gregory Pincus, who took an interest in hormonal contraceptive research. Margaret encouraged his research, and Katharine McCormick enthusiastically provided funds for Pincus and his colleagues. Less than 10 years later, in 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration approved "the pill" for use. Margaret Sanger had lived long enough to see her wish come true.

Margaret passed away at her home in Tucson, Arizona, on September 6, 1966. This daughter of poor Irish immigrants had been a firebrand, taking on the mantle of the birth control movement. Almost 50 years after her death Margaret continues to be viewed both as a hero and a demon. As with all people there are many sides to her story, but what stands out is her courage to advocate for the rights of others.

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Excerpted from She Takes a Stand by Michael Elsohn Ross. Copyright © 2015 Michael Elsohn Ross. Excerpted by permission of Chicago Review Press Incorporated.
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