Margaret Sanger was a pioneering birth control activist in the early 20th century. She opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916 and helped shift the medical view of contraception from a moral issue to a matter of public health and women's healthcare. However, her advocacy for public availability of birth control was also connected to eugenicist arguments about controlling the reproduction of the "unfit" and promoting childbearing among higher classes, foreshadowing later abuses of compulsory sterilization programs in the U.S.

1. Summary
Terese
Ellis
Heather
Pawlicki
Lauren
Hazel
Ashley
Cox

2. The
Birth
Control
Revolu0on
 Margaret
Higgins
Sanger
Slee
 September
14,
1879
–
September
6,
1966
 American
Birth
Control
activist
 Founder
of
the
American
Birth
control
league.

3. Birth
Control
Clinics
 Sanger
opened
her
first
birth
control
clinic
in
1916
against
MUCH
opposition.
 Her
second
birth
control
clinic
was
opened
in
1923
in
Brooklyn.
 The
main
goal
for
this
clinic
was
rather
than
challenging
obscenity
laws,
she
wanted
to
take
a
course
of
action
called
“doctors-­‐only
bills”
to
exempt
physicians
from
criminal
prosecution.
 Her
first
attempt
at
introducing
the
bill
to
Congress
failed,
but
it
didn’t
stop
her.
 Sanger
had
birth
control
smuggled
into
the
country
from
Europe
either
by
mail
or
across
the
U.S.
border
in
3-­‐in-­‐1
oil
drums.

4. The
Shaping
of
a
Na0on
 Beginning
in
the
1920’s
Margaret
Sanger
and
Clarence
Gamble
established
doctor-­‐
supervised
clinics,
promoted
laboratory
testing
of
contraceptives,
encouraged
the
physician-­‐fitted
diaphragm-­‐
and-­‐jelly
method,
and
lobbied
the
American
Medical
Association
(AMA)
to
reverse
its
long-­‐standing
ban
on
birth
control.
 Sanger’s
support
of
medicalized
birth
control
shaped
the
course
of
contraceptive
commercialization.

5. A
Medical
Reorienta0on
 The
diaphragm-­‐and-­‐jelly
method
was
so
effective
that
medical
schools
had
to
add
contraceptives
to
their
period
of
instruction
–
a
medical
reorientation
of
sorts.
 By
the
1940’s
the
diaphragm
became
the
#1
doctor
recommended
contraceptive.
 Medical
thinking
of
birth
control
had
indeed
shifted

6. A
Medical
Reorienta0on
 “The
large
majority
of
the
medical
profession
of
this
country
has
more
and
more
regard
of
contraceptive
practices
in
its
true
light
that
is,
not
as
a
moral
issue,
but
rather
as
a
branch
of
preventive
medicine.”
A
sick
woman
“should
be
entitled
to
medical
advice
which
will
protect
her
from
pregnancy
just
as
much
as
citizens
should
be
told
to
protect
themselves
from
smallpox,
diphtheria,
or
typhoid
fever.”

7. The
Idea
of
“Public
Welfare”
 The
argument
that
birth
control
should
be
mandatory
for
all:
 Gave
contraceptives
added
respectability
as
tools
of
social
engineering
 It
also
categorized
them
as
instruments
of
social
control,
weapons
in
a
eugenicist
war
against
criminality
an
imbecility.
 Few
doubted
these
issues,
however
the
public
welfare
approach
yielded
a
slippery
slope
toward
state
control
if
viewed
as
a
public
remedy
rather
than
a
woman’s
choice.

8. “Posi0ve”
Eugenics
 Eugenics,
“good
in
birth”
-­‐
the
study
of
methods
of
improving
genetic
qualities
by
selective
breeding
 Positive
eugenics
–
procreation
of
the
fittest
members
of
society
to
improve
the
American
gene
pool
 Falling
birth
rates
among
white,
Protestant
and
native
born
prompted
many,
including
Theodore
Roosevelt,
to
condemn
the
use
of
birth
control
by
“selfish”
middle-­‐class
women
and
upper-­‐
class
women
as
“race
suicide.”

9. Nega0ve
Eugenics
 Negative
eugenics
–
suppressing
the
procreation
of
unfit
groups
of
people.
 Compared
races
by
aptitude
and
intelligence
to
determine
which
should
be
allowed
to
procreate.
 Lobbied
to
restrict
immigration
of
southern
and
eastern
Europeans.
 Criticized
proposals
to
fund
programs
for
retarded
children
and
prenatal
and
obstetric
care
for
the
poor
as
they
insisted
they
increased
the
life
span
of
defective
citizens.
 “Eugenic
sterilization,
conservatively
and
sympathetically
administered,
is
a
practical,
humane
and
necessary
step
to
prevent
race
deterioration.”

10. Steriliza0on:
a
form
of
Birth
Control
 Sterilization
to
cure
compulsory,
uncontrollable
sexual
hysteria.
 Recommended
for
women
who
had
been
subjected
to
having
their
ovaries
removed
to
cure
“so-­‐called
nymphomania
and
hysteria”
 Male
sterilization
used
in
prison
to
control
prisoners
urge
to
masturbate
–
until
it
was
learned
that
vasectomies
do
not
affect
sexual
drive
nor
the
desire
to
masturbate.
 Used
as
a
method
during
the
Great
Depression
as
a
“way
to
save
money.”
 By
1932,
at
least
26
states
had
enacted
laws
permitting
the
forced
sterilization
of
individuals
considered
unfit.
 By
1937,
almost
28,000
men
and
women
had
been
forced
to
undergo
eugenic
surgery
in
the
U.S.
 More
than
16,000
were
women.

11. Sanger’s
Clinic:
A
Conspiracy???
 Sanger
opened
the
Birth
Control
Clinical
Research
Bureau
–
Harlem,
NY
(1930)
 Aimed
at
distributing
cheap
contraceptives
to
the
under
privileged.
 The
“research
bureau”
storefront
raised
suspicion
in
blacks
within
the
community
that
the
clinic’s
goal
was
to
experiment
on
and
sterilize
black
people.
 After
racially
integrating
the
staff
and
changing
promotional
pamphlets,
still
nothing
changed
and
the
clinic
was
forced
to
close
in
1936.

12. Closing
Thoughts
 Birth
control
clinics
weren’t
going
to
succeed
in
supplying
birth
control
to
the
poor,
not
in
a
country
where
profits
for
manufacturers
and
medical
professionals
were
more
important
than
health
care
for
the
poor
and
where
extramural
clinics
had
to
be
funded
by
donations
and
defended
against
the
argument
that
it
would
be
cheaper
for
society
to
sterilize
the
indigent.
 In
a
society
without
universal
health
care,
working-­‐class
people
are
systematically
denied
access
to
doctors
and
the
services
they
monopolize.
 Despite
these
perils
of
the
business,
Sanger
never
gave
up
her
goal
of
quality
birth
control
for
all
–
she
just
never
achieved
it.

13. Thoughts
to
Consider
 Who
is
Margaret
Sanger
and
what
did
she
consider
her
most
valuable
contribution
to
society
 How
did
Sanger
approach
the
issue
of
birth
control
for
women?
How
did
she
promote
it?
 How
did
Sanger
get
prople
to
help
her
when
there
was
so
much
opposition?
 How
is
this
linked
to
eugenics
and
what
was
eugenics
legislation
 Why
do
you
think
the
clinics
in
Harlem
failed?
 What
is
Tone
referring
to
when
she
notes
that
“
the
public
welfare
approach
yielded
a
slippery
slope
toward
state
control
once
contraception
became
a
public
remedy
rather
than
a
private
choice”

14. Rachel
Maines

15.  Goods
are
sold
everyday
around
the
world
that
are
advertised
for
a
purpose
other
than
they
are
often
used
for.
 Examples
were
given
such
as
rolling
papers
and
tools
that
can
help
you
break
into
your
own
car.

16.  Early
electromechanical
vibrators
took
over
the
use
of
manual
labor
at
the
end
of
the
19th
century.
 Were
used
for
sexual
massage
treatment
and
therapy
by
doctors
to
massage
the
female
genitalia.

17.  Although
today’s
society
can
identify
these
treatments
as
masturbation,
this
was
camouflaged
years
ago
to
relieve
hysteria.
It
was
not
seen
as
a
means
of
relieving
female
sexual
tension.
 Symptoms
of
hysteria
were
said
to
be
“anxiety,
sense
of
heaviness
in
the
pelvis,
edema
(swelling)
in
the
lower
abdomen
and
genital
areas,
wandering
of
attention
and
associated
tendencies
to
indulge
in
sexual
fantasy,
insomnia,
irritability,
and
“excessive”
vaginal
lubrication.

18.  After
such
treatments,
women
reported
that
they
felt
relief
of
their
hysteria
symptoms
which
was
later
identified
as
a
sexual
orgasm.
 The
ethics
behind
this
practice
was
often
questioned
which
is
why
it
was
camouflaged.

19.  As
this
therapy
became
more
popular,
devices
that
were
able
to
be
used
at
home
began
to
be
sold
in
the
market.
These
models
were
more
portable
and
were
less
costly
then
“treatment”
by
a
doctor.
 Advertised
in
magazines
targeting
the
middle
class.

20.  Clever
marketing
strategies
were
used
to
cover
up
the
sexual
nature
of
these
devices.
Were
advertised
as
“benefiting
health
and
beauty
by
stimulating
the
circulation
and
soothing
the
nerves”.
Were
also
said
to
make
you
look
younger.

21.  Although
masturbation
is
more
socially
acceptable
then
years
ago,
camouflaging
of
goods
is
still
a
prevalent
marketing
technique.
It
is
more
often
seen
in
advertising
the
legal
uses
of
a
product
when
it
is
known
that
the
product
is
more
than
likely
used
for
an
illegal
purpose.

22. Supplemental
Links
 http://www.workers.org/2009/us/birth_control_0507/
 http://www.womensenews.org/story/health/010626/
women-­‐color-­‐pressing-­‐reproductive-­‐health-­‐agenda/
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VJZSJ6cn8k4&feature=channel/
 http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/08/
autonomous-­‐contraception/

23. Supplemental
Links
cont.
 http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/
menoexcerpt.asp?id=51&chapterID=31
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3IAnlboQuI
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ky-­‐2GVT7ds