Margaret Sanger

1879 - 1966

Margaret Sanger devoted her life to legalizing female contraception and making it readily available for all women. Growing up during the age of the Comstock Act- a federal statute that criminalized contraceptives, motivated Margaret to find a safe contraceptive that could be used to relieve women of repeated, unwanted and unsafe pregnancies. Margaret’s motivation stemmed from watching her mother become unwell and eventually die from the stress that 11 childbirths and seven miscarriages do to a woman’s body. This tragedy pushed Margaret to pursue an education in medicine and health. She attended nursing school in Catskills, New York, and through her studies, eventually coined the term, “birth control”. In 1915, Margaret was indicted for sending diaphragms to women through the mail and was arrested in 1916 for opening the first birth control clinic in the United States. Nevertheless, she persisted. In 1921, Margaret founded the American Birth Control League, which served as the blueprint for the Planned Parenthood Federation. After spending the next 30 years devoting her time to providing safe and effective birth control to American society, Margaret still wasn’t satisfied. In a century, there had only been two forms of contraceptives introduced- the diaphragm in 1842 and the rubber condom in 1869. Since 1912, Margaret had been dreaming of what she referred to as the “magic pill”. In her late seventies after searching for the right doctor to take on the job, she found Gregory Pincus, a leader in human reproduction studies, and International Harvester heiress Katharine McCormick, who funded the project. In 1960, the “magic pill” medically known as Envoid was created and approved by the FDA as the first oral contraceptive. About a year before her passing, Margaret witnessed her lifelong dream become a reality when the Comstock Laws were undone in the 1964 Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut. Margaret remains an international legend for her innovation and advocacy in Women’s Health.