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The Right To One's Body Margaret Sanger Analysis

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Primary Source Review: The Rights to One’s Body, by Margaret Sanger An American nurse and women’s rights activist, Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), became the leader of “birth control,” establishing the first birth control clinic in the United States. She established the Birth Control Movement, organizing the American Birth Control League in 1921, which is now known as Planned Parenthood. Working as a nurse in the tenements of poverty, she saw first-hand the consequences of unwanted pregnancies, miscarriages, and amateur abortions. This lead her to the idea of a “magic pill” to control the occurrence of pregnancy, which we now know as birth control. Sanger focused solely on the rights of women, specifically to their bodies. “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother,” Sanger said in her essay, The Rights to One’s Body (1920), just one of many works done by her. Others include What Every Girl Should Know (1910), Family Limitation (1914), and My Fight …show more content…

Sanger was a feminist who believed women would never be equal to men until women were able to decide when they would become a mother. Because of her feminist views, she put a lot of blame on men in her essay for unwanted and failing pregnancies, arguing that women are enslaved by men's desires because the women are left on their own once they are pregnant and have a child. With pregnancy, Sanger argues that the women suffer more greatly than the men. Sanger says that, “In an ideal society, no doubt, birth control would become the concern of the man as well as the woman.” Throughout her entire essay she constantly portrays women as the victims, because their feminine spirits are “bondaged” by men’s desires. Her arguments are based more on her opinion, than absolute facts. Some of her claims are unfair to say about the men that do care just as much as the women in a

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May credited Margaret Sanger and fellow women's rights proponent and philanthropist Katherine McCormick for driving, and funding, the push for an oral contraceptive, with the original intent to give women control of fertility. However, the majority of developers and advocates endorsed the birth control pill to solve "the problems of the world," specifically rising population, and particularly among lower socio-economic groups and in developing countries." Advocates feared widespread poverty in developing countries, poverty resulting from communism, and overpopulation in the United States due to the baby boom.

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The names jointly associated with the pills development are three males— Carl Djerassi, Gregory Pincus and John Rock. The two females who played a central role in its development, Katharine McCormick and Margaret Sanger, are often not associated. Also the hundreds of women who volunteered to participate in the pill’s risky clinical trials are not associated with its development, May depicts the reason for failure of recognition by shedding light to the darkness of the pill. She dedicates several pages to specifying the moral and physical risks posed by the pill. May provides supportive information about numerous research trials all over the world (including the U.S.), and the stories of countless women whose suffrage heavily contributed to the development of the pill and the approval for

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Margaret Sanger distinctly uses rhetorical devices which greatly support her dedication to allow women to control their lives. Beginning this speech, Margaret Sanger used alliteration to influence her audience to form an image in their minds when she said, “Why does the Children’s Ear still remain a dream of the dim and distant future?”and when she said, “ … they call this idea indecent and immoral.” The pairing of these specific words allow Sanger to emphasize this specific group of words to provide a specific

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In this quote Sanger relates the the subjugation of women to the bondage of the freedom of humanity. She relates to the male audience by speaking of a Father and Husband who was a sober, hard working gentleman, who turned into an alcoholic when five more children were added to the family. She shows the importance of birth control not only for the health of the woman, but also the future of the child/children and father. She uses pathos to emotionally connect to the hardships faced by men in low and middle class families who cannot support their families due to to big of a

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Trying to prevent neglected children and back-alley abortions, Margaret Sanger gave the moving speech, “The Children’s Era,” in 1925 to spread information on the benefits and need for birth control and women's rights. Margaret Sanger--activist, educator, writer, and nurse--opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. During most of the 1900’s, birth control and abortions were illegal in the United States, causing women to give birth unwillingly to a child they must be fully responsible for. This caused illness and possible death for women attempting self-induced abortion. Sanger uses literary devices such as repetition and analogies

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Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger, a feminist social reformer, argued that “women cannot be on equal footing with men until they have complete control over their reproductive functions”. Her argument improved our everyday life by providing more information on contraceptives, giving women the power to control their bodies, and changing the role of women and men. Margaret Sanger was determined and dedicated to provide women with information about contraceptives which eventually improved the lives of many women. During the Progressive Era, women had gained a lot more interest in becoming independent by working and improving their education.

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These movements were often times led by brave leaders, such as Margaret Sanger. Sanger discussed the different freedoms women had, and should fight for. Around the time Sanger discussed women's freedoms, the term of “feminism” came about, at which Sanger fought for the promotion of birth control as the main issue. Sanger stood by the statement, “No women can call herself free who does not own and control her body.” There was also a big emphasis on the need to be able to control birthrate and knowledge of sexual expression because there are no laws as is to protect the working mother from being

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Sanger's legacy is controversial. Some people view her as a hero who fought for women's rights, while others view her as a eugenicist who promoted birth control as a means of controlling certain populations. Sanger did support eugenics early in her career, but later distanced herself from the movement. Sanger's work had a profound impact on women's reproductive rights in the United States. She popularized the term "birth control" and helped to make birth control legal and more accessible.

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Which was bad at the time because it was illegal to send out information on contraception through the mail(The Comstock Act of 1873). Which made her magazine a crime. So Sanger fled to England to avoid a possible five year jail sentence. While in England she worked and researched other forms of birth control which she later smuggled back into the United States. She was separated from her husband during this time so embracing the idea of free love, the couple had later divorced.

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She is not giving the society a chance to grow, a chance to build itself from the grown up. In this case, therefore, Margaret Sanger is controlling the poor. She is not giving the society the chance to fight for all that they can achieve and become by not allowing them see the potential of having a big family, based on her experiences with her mother. Her experiences may not be the same as ever other person’s with regards to her mother’s problems. She is instead controlling what everyone in the society is thinking and for that reason, this works as control, especially of the

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"The Need for Birth Control" (1922) written by Margaret Sanger a feminist and birth control activist. Sanger started out nursing before she released in 1912 an article in a newspaper called "What Every Girl Should Know" starting her campaign to educate women about sex, during this time she was nursing women on the lower east side and treated many women who had back-alley abortions or tried to terminate the pregnancy themselves. This motivated Sanger to begin fighting to make birth control information and contraceptives available to women. In 1914 Sanger had published "The Rebel Woman" a feminist magazine that promoted women's rights to birth control, By doing this she was going against the Comstock act of 1873 and faced a possible five- year jail sentence. Instead of facing jail time Sanger fled to England and worked in the women's movement and researched birth control.

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Margaret Sanger spent her lifetime fighting for reproductive equality for women the world over. Coining the term “birth control”, Margaret faced many trials, including indictments for “obscene” behavior, jail time, lawsuits and many rallies against Planned Parenthood, to ensure that all women had access. Unfortunately, while she lived to see her dream go far, she died September 6, 1966, seven years before the pill became legally available to all women and before abortion became legal in the United States. Her obituary in the New York Times described her as “a dynamic, titian-haired woman whose Irish ancestry also endowed her with unfailing charm and persuasive wit was first and foremost a feminist. She sought to create equality between the sexes by freeing women from what she saw as sexual servitude.”

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To flip this around, Sanger argued that denial of sexual agency, namely access to birth control for women, goes forth to deny women of their political agency at a higher level. Denial of sexual rights and sexual agency is a source of political power for a chosen few and an oppressive force in society. I agree with Sanger, and that allowing relieving individuals of their oppression (giving women access to birth control) would be a "remedy for a myriad of social problems. " In this example, women would choose when to become mothers and be granted their rights to sexuality.

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What it’s like to have a choice “No women can call herself free who does not control her own body.” This powerful quote comes from Margaret Sanger. As being the founder of planned parenthood, Sanger believed that a choice to end a pregnancy should be up to the women who’s caring the baby. Many states and countries worldwide have been discussing about the banning of abortion. Rather than making this procedure illegal, the law should should keep this practice statutory.

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In 1960, the first birth control pill was put on the market. This was the first time a woman’s reproductive health was in her own control. Ever since the 1900’s women have been fighting for the right to their own reproductive rights (“The Fight for Reproductive Rights”). With the upcoming presidential election the right to obtain birth control and other contraceptives for women could be jeopardized, and taken out of the control of the woman. Thus, the history of birth control, the statistics of how it affects today’s society, why women should have the ability to obtain it easily, and how if outlawed it would not only hurt women, but also the economy are all important topics in the women’s rights movement and very relevant in modern day society.

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