Primary Source Review: The Rights to One’s Body, by Margaret Sanger
An American nurse and women’s rights activist, Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), became the leader of “birth control,” establishing the first birth control clinic in the United States. She established the Birth Control Movement, organizing the American Birth Control League in 1921, which is now known as Planned Parenthood. Working as a nurse in the tenements of poverty, she saw first-hand the consequences of unwanted pregnancies, miscarriages, and amateur abortions. This lead her to the idea of a “magic pill” to control the occurrence of pregnancy, which we now know as birth control. Sanger focused solely on the rights of women, specifically to their bodies. “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother,” Sanger said in her essay, The Rights to One’s Body (1920), just one of many works done by her. Others include What Every Girl Should Know (1910), Family Limitation (1914), and My Fight
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Sanger was a feminist who believed women would never be equal to men until women were able to decide when they would become a mother. Because of her feminist views, she put a lot of blame on men in her essay for unwanted and failing pregnancies, arguing that women are enslaved by men's desires because the women are left on their own once they are pregnant and have a child. With pregnancy, Sanger argues that the women suffer more greatly than the men. Sanger says that, “In an ideal society, no doubt, birth control would become the concern of the man as well as the woman.” Throughout her entire essay she constantly portrays women as the victims, because their feminine spirits are “bondaged” by men’s desires. Her arguments are based more on her opinion, than absolute facts. Some of her claims are unfair to say about the men that do care just as much as the women in a
After read this article “No Healthy Race without Birth Control” by Margaret Sanger who really makes my mind stuck out with two points: first is her title “No Healthy Race without Birth Control” and another she used birth Control as a vehicle for women to gain their freedom. Firstly, I do not agree with her augment is that “No Healthy Race without Birth Control”. I have never heard a maxim like this in my life: such as women will not have a good health if they do not do birth control. This argument is not entirely true.
May credited Margaret Sanger and fellow women's rights proponent and philanthropist Katherine McCormick for driving, and funding, the push for an oral contraceptive, with the original intent to give women control of fertility. However, the majority of developers and advocates endorsed the birth control pill to solve "the problems of the world," specifically rising population, and particularly among lower socio-economic groups and in developing countries." Advocates feared widespread poverty in developing countries, poverty resulting from communism, and overpopulation in the United States due to the baby boom.
The names jointly associated with the pills development are three males— Carl Djerassi, Gregory Pincus and John Rock. The two females who played a central role in its development, Katharine McCormick and Margaret Sanger, are often not associated. Also the hundreds of women who volunteered to participate in the pill’s risky clinical trials are not associated with its development, May depicts the reason for failure of recognition by shedding light to the darkness of the pill. She dedicates several pages to specifying the moral and physical risks posed by the pill. May provides supportive information about numerous research trials all over the world (including the U.S.), and the stories of countless women whose suffrage heavily contributed to the development of the pill and the approval for
Sanger's legacy is controversial. Some people view her as a hero who fought for women's rights, while others view her as a eugenicist who promoted birth control as a means of controlling certain populations. Sanger did support eugenics early in her career, but later distanced herself from the movement. Sanger's work had a profound impact on women's reproductive rights in the United States. She popularized the term "birth control" and helped to make birth control legal and more accessible.
Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger, a feminist social reformer, argued that “women cannot be on equal footing with men until they have complete control over their reproductive functions”. Her argument improved our everyday life by providing more information on contraceptives, giving women the power to control their bodies, and changing the role of women and men. Margaret Sanger was determined and dedicated to provide women with information about contraceptives which eventually improved the lives of many women. During the Progressive Era, women had gained a lot more interest in becoming independent by working and improving their education.
In the 1920s, birth control was a very significant issue that led to the controversial debate between Winter Russell and Margaret Sanger. Most people believed that Planned Parenthood caused the decline of population in human race. Many viewed it harmful to human being’s welfare. Sanger’s debate about birth control was to stand for the entitlement of women to access birth control. Today in our society, birth control plays a big role in our lives.
(Sanger 20). Here, she saw hordes of impoverished girls in desperate need of birth control and abortions, both illegal at the time. Sanger set out to change this, and at the end of her career, she would become the face of the Women’s Reproductive Rights movement. Margaret Sanger’s contributions to sexual education and liberation paved
As one of her eleven siblings in a poor family, Margaret couldn’t help but to feel inferior and long for a rich and comfortable lifestyle. When Sanger’s mother died at the age of forty, Margaret believed that her mother’s premature death was a consequence of excessive childbirth. Along with this mindset, as a young girl, Margaret formed a mindset that poverty, illness, and strife were all fates for large families, whereas small families enjoyed wealth, leisure, and positive parental relationships (Croft). It came to no surprise that Sanger, with such a harsh childhood, grew up to become one of the biggest, if not the biggest, advocates for birth control. Soon after her mother’s death, Margaret decided to become a nurse.
In this quote Sanger relates the the subjugation of women to the bondage of the freedom of humanity. She relates to the male audience by speaking of a Father and Husband who was a sober, hard working gentleman, who turned into an alcoholic when five more children were added to the family. She shows the importance of birth control not only for the health of the woman, but also the future of the child/children and father. She uses pathos to emotionally connect to the hardships faced by men in low and middle class families who cannot support their families due to to big of a
Some words Margaret Sanger used include the following: dim, distant, silly, unwelcome, unwanted, unprepared, unknown, exhausted, inefficient, struggle, meaningless, and waste. Including the sentence, “Worry, strain, shock, unhappiness, enforced maternity, may all poison the blood of the enslaved mothers,” provides the negative tone to hint that she does not like the fact that birth control is illegal in the United States. Her habitual word choices is a consequence of where she comes from. Diction reveals things about Sanger’s past and how she reacts and views the present. Margaret Sanger, a memorable and important woman of American history, used her determination and emotional influence to appeal to the national birth control committee, and, as a result, created a lasting speech filled with rhetorical
Trying to prevent neglected children and back-alley abortions, Margaret Sanger gave the moving speech, “The Children’s Era,” in 1925 to spread information on the benefits and need for birth control and women's rights. Margaret Sanger--activist, educator, writer, and nurse--opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. During most of the 1900’s, birth control and abortions were illegal in the United States, causing women to give birth unwillingly to a child they must be fully responsible for. This caused illness and possible death for women attempting self-induced abortion. Sanger uses literary devices such as repetition and analogies
The argument over a woman’s right to choose over the life of an unborn baby has been a prevalent issue in America for many years. As a birth control activist, Margaret Sanger is recognized for her devotion to the pro-choice side of the debate as she has worked to provide sex education and legalize birth control. As part of her pro-choice movement, Sanger delivered a speech at the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference in March of 1925. This speech is called “The Children’s Era,” in which she explains how she wants the twentieth century to become the “century of the child.” Margaret Sanger uses pathos throughout her speech as she brings up many of the negative possibilities that unplanned parenthood can bring for both children and parents.
With the introduction of birth control pills in 1960, women had to fight with the law for the decision to reproduce or not to reproduce. Women like Margaret Sanger would fight for women’s right to use the contraceptive, birth control. Women like Norma Leah McCorvey, also known as Jane Roe, in the famous Roe v Wade case in 1973 for the right to have an abortion. These are only two women out of many who paved the way for women to stand up for the right to make reproduction choices for their
In 1960, the first birth control pill was put on the market. This was the first time a woman’s reproductive health was in her own control. Ever since the 1900’s women have been fighting for the right to their own reproductive rights (“The Fight for Reproductive Rights”). With the upcoming presidential election the right to obtain birth control and other contraceptives for women could be jeopardized, and taken out of the control of the woman. Thus, the history of birth control, the statistics of how it affects today’s society, why women should have the ability to obtain it easily, and how if outlawed it would not only hurt women, but also the economy are all important topics in the women’s rights movement and very relevant in modern day society.
Women in the Progressive Era The Progressive Era was a time of change across America, a time when the country chose to reform into an industrialized urban country. Prosperity was widespread across America, so people turned to social issues to try to expand. Minorities in particular became a focus of this time period, and everyone tried to find a way to integrate them into society.