A New Era of Birth Control
Hunter Kirkpatrick
Mrs. Engle
History Paper
1-11-17
A New Era of Birth Control
“One of the first questions asked by women desirous of contraceptive information, is: ‘Will the knowledge of birth control, when put into practice, injure the health of either the man or the woman?’” (Sanger, 1917) Those words were spoken by Margaret Sanger herself. In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s many women were entering the work force and many of them were married to alcoholics who spent all of their paychecks on booze instead of on the family. It was hard for the women to make money to support their families, and if they were to grow, that would make it even more difficult. So most of them in that time, including Sanger herself were looking for ways to control getting pregnant, but there weren’t any reliable methods at that time. So, she decided it was time for that to change. Margaret Sanger was a groundbreaking researcher and activist who helped develop and popularize early forms of birth control in the United States, which would help women control their family size in an era where childbirth was still often dangerous.
Things weren’t easy for her at first, she had to overcome a lot of obstacles. Not only were they questioning the safety, but the Morality of what she was doing. Her mother said this to her, “it was a terrible sin to do anything to keep from having children and that the Lord only sent just thing, and if I heard anything I was told it was injurious.” (Sanger, 1917) She had very deep opinions on it herself. In one of her speeches she said, “THE question of morality is different because that is so individual. So much immorality depends on what is within us. I refuse to accept the dictum that morality or immorality comes from the outside. I think it begins from within, and I believe birth control, no matter how much information is available, is never the cause of immorality any more than an automobile is the cause of immorality, or good roads, trains, hotels, or anything in modern civilization that makes immorality possible. None of these factors are the cause of immorality. We have to realize that every good thing may be used and misused.” (Sanger, 1936)