VOICE TWO:
Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women.
While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her.
VOICE ONE:
Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in Nineteen-Sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One-hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail.
With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one.
Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. In the Nineteen-Thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the Nineteen-Twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents.
Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements.
VOICE ONE:
Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In the Nineteen-Forty-Two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two.
Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents.
The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group.
VOICE TWO:
Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
