Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger, who was born Margaret Louise Higgins on September 14, 1879, and died on September 6, 1966, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger made the term "birth control" more common. She also opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and started groups that later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Sanger's writings and speeches were mostly used to spread her ideas. In 1914, she was charged with breaking the law with her...See more

Margaret Sanger, who was born Margaret Louise Higgins on September 14, 1879, and died on September 6, 1966, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger made the term "birth control" more common. She also opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and started groups that later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Sanger's writings and speeches were mostly used to spread her ideas. In 1914, she was charged with breaking the law with her book Family Limitation. In New York City, she set up the first birth control clinic where all of the doctors were women. She also set up a clinic in Harlem with an all-black advisory council, which later added African-American staff. In 1929, she started the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control. This group was the center of her efforts to get birth control legalized in the U.S. Sanger was the head of the International Planned Parenthood Federation from 1952 to 1959. She died in 1966, and many people think of her as the founder of the modern movement for birth control. See less