9781422274064

available to poor women, so they could control the size of their families. In 1912, Sanger began writing a newspaper column called “What Every Girl Should Know,” to educate women about sex. She once declared, “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” 6 The idea that women could control whether they had children was considered outrageous and controversial at the time. At one point, Sanger was obliged to flee to England to avoid a jail sentence for violating the Comstock Act. This law prohibited the sale of “obscene materials,” which at the time included information on sex, reproduction, and birth control devices. Sanger’s legal battles resulted in court rulings that relaxed the laws prohibiting birth control. She later founded the precursor of Planned Parenthood and supported research that led to the development of oral contraceptives in the early 1960s. Sanger’s legacy is not without controversy. She was a believer in a concept called “eugenics” and advocated birth control as a means to weed out the physically and mentally unfit. She has also been accused by modern conservatives of harboring racist views, believing that birth control could be used to reduce the population of African Americans and other ethnic groups. The accusation is hotly disputed by Sanger’s admirers. Another controversy rising out of the fight for reproductive rights was the establishment of legal abortion

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Contemporary Issues: Gender Equality