Margaret Sanger
1916
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The original caption for this photograph reads: Margaret Sanger (1883-1966) founder of the National Birth Control League and instrumental in the opening of America's first Birth Control Clinic in 1916.
Margaret Sanger, a nurse, coined the term “birth control” and dedicated herself to educating women. Her own mother had 18 pregnancies in 22 years and died from ovarian cancer. Sanger began publishing a monthly newsletter called "The Woman Rebel" in 1914. She used the publication to inform women about birth control.
She was arrested repeatedly for violating the 1873 Comstock Act, which defined birth control as obscene and made it a Federal offence to send contraceptive devices or information about birth control through the mail.
Eventually the Supreme Court weighed in on the topic of birth control and ruled in the 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut that marital privacy—including a woman’s decision to use contraceptives—is a protected right, although that word does not appear in the Constitution.
Margaret Sanger, a nurse, coined the term “birth control” and dedicated herself to educating women. Her own mother had 18 pregnancies in 22 years and died from ovarian cancer. Sanger began publishing a monthly newsletter called "The Woman Rebel" in 1914. She used the publication to inform women about birth control.
She was arrested repeatedly for violating the 1873 Comstock Act, which defined birth control as obscene and made it a Federal offence to send contraceptive devices or information about birth control through the mail.
Eventually the Supreme Court weighed in on the topic of birth control and ruled in the 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut that marital privacy—including a woman’s decision to use contraceptives—is a protected right, although that word does not appear in the Constitution.
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Information Agency.
National Archives Identifier: 148728074
Full Citation: Photograph 306-PSE-74-1572; Margaret Sanger; 1916; Master File Photographs of U.S. and Foreign Personalities, World Events, and American Economic, Social, and Cultural Life, ca. 1953 - ca. 1994; Records of the U.S. Information Agency, Record Group 306; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/margaret-sanger, April 17, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
