1920's Government and Politics | The Pivot of Civilization

Nonfiction work

By: Margaret Sanger

Date: 1922

Source: Sanger, Margaret. The Pivot of Civilization. Elmsford, N.Y.: Maxwell Reprint Co., 1969. Available online at http://www.pro-life.net/sanger/pivot_05.htm (accessed January 29, 2003).

About the Author: Born in Cornell, New York, to Irish American parents, Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) was the leading American proponent of birth control until her death. The death of her mother at age fifty after bearing eleven children had a profound impact on Sanger, who believed that women had a right to control their sexual and reproductive lives. In 1921, she established the American Birth Control League, which became Planned Parenthood in 1942.

Introduction

In 1883, British scientist Francis Galton coined the term eugenics, from the Greek word for "good...