1930's Lifestyles and Social Trends | Statement of Mrs. Margaret Sanger

Statement

By: Margaret Sanger

Date: May 1932

Source: Statement of Mrs. Margaret Sanger, National Chairman, Committee on the Federal Legislation for Birth Control. Birth Control: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 72nd Congress, 1st Session on S. 4436. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932, 6–12.

About the Author: Margaret Higgins Sanger (1879–1966) argued for family planning education for all. As a nurse and one of eleven children (her mother had eighteen pregnancies and died at the age of fifty), Sanger saw firsthand how poor mothers were affected by having numerous children. Sanger established the first birth control clinic in 1916, which evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Introduction

Various forms of birth control, including abortion, have been practiced since...