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Margaret Sanger: Women's Reproductive Rights Movement

1212 Words5 Pages

As she watched her mother die in her father 's arms, Margaret Sanger decided that it was time to take a stand. In the early 20th century, women had no control over their bodies. Margaret Sanger defied the conformities of her time. A fiery feminist and crusader for the right to choose, her victories would change the course of Women 's Rights forever. We can attribute countless laws, products and foundations to her legacy. Margaret Sanger was an exceptionally influential figure for women 's reproductive rights in the 20th century. Margaret Sanger was born in 1879, the sixth of eleven surviving children, in Corning, New York. At age thirteen, Sanger 's mother died, weakened from eighteen childbirths. The tragedy served as an incentive; determined to save women in her mother’s position, Sanger enrolled in a medical program at Claverack College. She graduated in 1900 and began work as a nurse at White Plains Hospital. (Sanger 20). Here, she saw hordes of impoverished girls in desperate need of birth control and abortions, both illegal at the time. Sanger set out to change this, and at the end of her career, she would become the face of the Women’s Reproductive Rights movement. Margaret Sanger’s contributions to sexual education and liberation paved …show more content…

Margaret Sanger produced the first birth control pill, arguably the most salient innovation for women’s reproductive rights in the 20th century. At seventy, Sanger had spent decades fighting for women’s rights and had made several valuable contributions, but she was still frustrated with a lack of effective birth control in America. (Eig 30). In 1959, she employed the scientific knowledge of Gregory Pincus to produce the world’s first oral birth control drug. (The Pill”). The team had little hope for the pill, but on May 9th, 1960, the Food and Drug Association approved the sale of the newly introduced oral contraceptive by doctors nationally. (“HPV, HIV, Birth Control”). By 1967, thirteen million women used

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