author
Margaret Sanger
1879–1966
A fierce and controversial reformer, she helped bring birth control into public debate in the United States and pushed for women to have more control over their own lives. Her writing and activism changed laws, sparked lasting arguments, and left a complicated legacy.
10 Audiobooks
Woman and the New Race
by Margaret Sanger
The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts
by Margaret Sanger
The Pivot of Civilization
by Margaret Sanger
Dutch Methods of Birth Control
by Margaret Sanger
Magnetation Methods of Birth Control
by Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
by Margaret Sanger
What Every Girl Should Know
by Margaret Sanger
Family Limitation
by Margaret Sanger
Debate on birth control. Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell
by Margaret Sanger, Winter Russell
About the author
Born in Corning, New York, in 1879, Margaret Sanger trained as a nurse and became deeply affected by the poverty and repeated pregnancies she saw among working-class women. She went on to become one of the best-known advocates for birth control in the United States, writing and speaking openly at a time when sharing contraceptive information could lead to arrest.
Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn in 1916 and later founded the American Birth Control League, which became part of Planned Parenthood. She also supported research that contributed to the development of the first birth control pill, helping turn a once-taboo subject into a major public issue.
Her influence was enormous, but her legacy is also debated. Historians and major reference sources note both her central role in expanding access to contraception and the serious criticism of some of her views and associations, especially her ties to eugenic ideas that were common in parts of her era. She died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1966.