Margaret Sanger
Born September 14, 1879 (Corning, New York)
Died September 6, 1966 (Tucson, Arizona)
Advocate
Outspoken in her defense of women's rights to control their reproductive lives, Margaret Sanger was a leading founder of the U.S. movement to make birth control widely available. It was during the Roaring Twenties—a time of great social change, when sexual matters were starting to be more openly discussed, and women began demanding the same sexual freedoms that men had always enjoyed—that Sanger opened the first physician-directed birth control clinic in the United States. Although Sanger was not the first or only advocate of family planning, she was certainly among the most energetic and dedicated. Fighting opposition from government and church leaders, as well as public opinion, she helped to change attitudes about birth control.
Influenced by Mother's Life and Death
Sanger was born Margaret Louisa Higgins into a large Irish American family in Corning, New York. Her father, Michael Hennessey Higgins, was a stonecutter with unconventional, liberal views who was more interested in political arguments than in making a steady income for his family. Her mother,
Annie Higgins, was a devout member of the Roman Catholic religion, which forbids the use of birth control.
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