What is Margaret Sanger doing today? Parents, Age, Ethnicity



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Margaret Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator, and nurse. She popularized the term “birth control”, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that advocated for birth control and reproductive rights.

Sanger was born Margaret Louise Higgins in Corning, New York, on September 14, 1879. Her parents, Michael Hennessey Higgins and Anne Purcell Higgins, were Irish Catholic immigrants. She was the sixth of eleven children. Sanger’s early education was sporadic; she attended Catholic schools until she was eight years old, when her family moved to a farm in Westchester County, New York. In 1896, she enrolled at Claverack College, a boarding school in Hudson, New York. She transferred to Vassar College after one year, where she studied biology and sociology.

Sanger’s interest in birth control began in 1900, when she witnessed a friend’s self-induced abortion. The experience led her to believe that women should have control over their own bodies and reproduction. After graduating from Vassar in 1902, Sanger worked as a visiting nurse in New York City slums. In 1903, she married William Sanger, an architect. The couple had three children: Stuart, Peggy, and Grant.

Sanger began writing about birth control in 1912, when she started a column called “What Every Girl Should Know” for the socialist newspaper New York Call. In 1914, she published a pamphlet entitled Family Limitation, which provided instructions on how to use contraception. The pamphlet was banned in the United States, so Sanger had it printed in England and smuggled into the country.

In 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, in Brooklyn, New York. The clinic was shut down by police after nine days, but Sanger continued her work. In 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood. Sanger also helped to found the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Sanger’s advocacy for birth control and reproductive rights earned her many enemies. She was arrested several times and spent time in jail. In 1929, she was tried for violating a federal obscenity law with her pamphlet Family Limitation. The case was dismissed, but the trial brought national attention to Sanger and her work.

Sanger continued to advocate for birth control and reproductive rights until her death on September 6, 1966. She is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of birth control.

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia