Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Pioneer.

Margaret Sanger, the great pioneer of the birth control movement in the United States, declared in a 1938 article in the New Republic, "At last birth control is legal in the United States." As a nurse in New York City slums, Sanger was appalled at deaths from self-induced abortions. One of every four maternal deaths was due to abortion. In 1916 she opened a birth control clinic in Brooklyn and was arrested for creating a public nuisance. But by 1938 she could proclaim that federal law finally recognized the right to provide contraceptive information and service under medical direction. This right was legal under state laws in all but three states, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Massachusetts.

Legal and Medical Sanctions for Birth Control.

Prior to 1930 the Comstock laws of 1873 — Section 211 of the United States Penal Code — outlawed the dissemination of birth...