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15 Amazing Facts about Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger was a bold woman in the twentieth century who spearheaded women鈥檚 health and family planning. She began her family planning movement at a time when women鈥檚 rights were neglected and women were not allowed to make national decisions in the United States of America. Sanger鈥檚 contribution to women鈥檚 health is a legacy that has been in society for more than a century and even future generations will benefit from her idea. She was the first person to introduce the term 鈥渂irth control鈥� in America which would help women manage giving birth. You can only imagine the amount of pressure and opposition she faced in her attempt to set women free from unwanted pregnancies and births. The use of contraceptives and any kind of birth control methods were prohibited in the United States of America. Therefore, Sanger鈥檚 efforts seemed like swimming against the current. However, she left a mark.

The following are some of the fifteen facts about Margaret Sanger that you need to know:

1. Margaret Sanger Laid Blame on Her Father When Her Mother Died

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Margaret Louise Higgins or Margaret Sanger was born in a family of eleven children. Her mother carried eighteen pregnancies in her life as a wife in a period of fewer than twenty-five years. She had seven miscarriages and her health was poor throughout her life as a wife and a mother. When she passed on at fifty years, Margaret blamed her father suggesting that her mother died because of having too many children. She believed that too many pregnancies made her mother weak and unable to fight infections.

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2. Margaret Sanger Started the First Birth Control Clinic in New York City

Despite women having less contribution to social matters in the United States of America in the early 1900s, Sanger opened a birth control clinic. To make matters worse, she opens the clinic in the male-dominated society of New York City. She did everything amid chaos and against the laws that prohibited every form of contraceptive in America. She was arrested and thrown in jail and the clinic was brought down immediately. Margaret would be released and continued with her idea to help bring sanity to the healthcare sector.

3. Sanger Advocated for Eugenics and led a Eugenics Movement in America

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Margaret Sanger鈥檚 desire to control human reproduction was fueled by her childhood experiences. She came from a family of more than ten siblings where she experienced hardship because of poverty and chaos that never ended. She noticed that huge families were associated with poverty, and never experienced peace while wealthy families had few children and lived happy lives. Sanger made up her mind to control human reproduction through sterilization to stop undesired genes from spreading in America. Of course, her idea would not work but a portion of it was incorporated into the healthcare system.

4. She Provided Answers to Controversial Questions that Women Asked

Sanger wrote about women health and birth control called Women and the New Race in which she addressed issues that women faced in marriages regarding giving birth. One of the pressing questions that women asked was when a woman should stop having children. In response to the question, Sanger suggested that a woman must avoid having children when the couple begins having defects. Some defects would come with age while others were a result of social activities. She said that people need to avoid having children if they get exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis.

5. She Released some Controversial Statements on a Radio Show 

While on an interview on a radio show, Margret Sanger was heard saying that a certain group of people need to be sterilized to be eliminated from society. She mentioned the morons, those who are illiterate, criminals, prostitutes, and people who were not making a positive impact on the growth of the economy. She said that these people need to be sterilized or be isolated from the general population and given a place of their own.

6. She had a Dream of Becoming a Doctor and Making a Difference in Society

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Sanger鈥檚 desire to become a doctor was cut short because of a lack of money as her father would not afford to pay her tuition fee. Besides, medical schools were not like ordinary schools and they were very expensive making it more difficult for the poor man to afford. However, her dream to venture into the medical field did not die. She opted to become a nurse by joining the probationary nursing school in the 1900s. She got married to William Sanger and moved away from New York City.

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7. She Moved to New York Where she Began Her Reforms With Other Women 

Sanger鈥檚 house caught fire for unknown reasons and the couple stopped being happy in the New York suburbs. They moved to New York City where Sanger, alongside several other radical women formed a New York socialist party whose agenda was to help women. A team of women including Upton Sinclair, and Emma Goldman among others, these women visited several clinics in New York to help women who were unable to raise their newborn children. Several poor women benefited from her organization.

8. Sanger Believed that Using Birth Control was Supposed to be a Free Social Thing 

While in New York City, Sanger engaged a national newspaper, the New York Call, and began teaching women about sex education. However, the editors always excluded words from her writing claiming they were too vulgar. She abandoned the newspaper and formed her magazine which she published monthly. However, the use of vulgar words and advocating for contraceptives attracted national attention and she was arrested. She fled to Europe.

9. Despite Advocating for Birth Control, She was Against Women鈥檚 Abortion

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Sanger鈥檚 idea to control human birth and reduce families would make one think that she encouraged abortion to get rid of unwanted pregnancies. However, the opposite is true. Sanger disliked abortion and would go out of her way to help women who would opt for abortion. Sanger provided money and food to poor women who would abandon their newborn babies. She described an incident when she helped a woman who had attempted an abortion in 1912 but died on her second abortion attempt. Margaret vowed to help such women.

10. Sanger Publicly Denounced the Relevance of the Existing Laws 

In 1917, Sanger and her sister, Byrne, were put on trial for breaking the law and Byrne was sentenced to thirty days. When the judge came to Sanger, he offered her a lesser sentence if she would obey the law. However, Sanger publicly turned the offer down and said that she would never obey the existing law. She was found guilty and sentenced to thirty days.

11. Sanger was both a Nurse and an Amazing Writer who Published Several Books 

Apart from being a full-time nurse, Sanger was also an author who wrote several books that focused on birth control and civilization. Some of her works include Family Limitation, The Pivot of Civilization, and Women and the New Race among other books. In her books, she advocated for ensuring eugenics because she believed the world would be a better place if people living in it had a sound mind to do the right thing. Despite the opposition, she carried on with her mission.

12. She was Married Twice in her Lifetime and had Three Children Only

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Margaret Sanger did not advocate for something she did not believe in but also practiced birth control as a wife. She was married twice in the early 1900s and she only gave birth to three children across her marriages. She was first married to William Sanger in 1902 with whom they had two sons before separating a few years later. Sanger remarried twenty years later to James Noah Slee and had a daughter together. She believe in birth control and said that three children were enough for a family.

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13. Sanger鈥檚 Books were Among the First to be Burned by the Germany Government 

Margaret Sanger had written and published several books before the Nazis burned books they viewed as un-German because of the ideas written in the books. In 1833, Sanger published almost ten books that were banned and copies burned in Germany. Several other prolific writers such as Albert Einstein, Jack London, and others had their books burned. Sanger鈥檚 books advocated for birth control and women鈥檚 rights in making national decisions, which Adolf Hitler opposed strongly. The Nazis believed in traditional governance where women were not allowed to take part in politics.

14. Her Niece Played a Role in the Inspiration of the Wonder Woman Character

Sanger鈥檚 niece, Olive Byrne was a close companion to William Moulton Marston, the creator of the Wonder Woman character who is famous today for creating science fiction movies. Olive alongside William鈥檚 wife Elizabeth Holloway was inspirational to his creation of the character. Historian Jill Lapore wrote that Olive often wore the silver bangles on her hand which are used today in the wonder woman character. Sanger also used to wear the same silver bracelets in the early 1900s which symbolized women鈥檚 oppression in her quest to bring balance to society.

15. Sanger Holds the Record of Nobel Peace Prize Nominations

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In a period of ten years, Sanger received more than thirty nominations for the Nobel peace prize between 1953 and 1963. She was nominated in America, India, and several other countries where she had visited. Despite the nominations, she never won the prize.

Margaret Sanger left a legacy that will be celebrated for the rest of human existence. Whether you believe in birth control or not, you would implement her ideas in one way. She was the pioneer in introducing birth control in America, an idea that spread across the world and is practiced today. She also fought for women鈥檚 rights in society which has been taken into account in the current world. She is a legend.