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In October 1918, Margaret Sanger opened the first contraceptive clinic at 46 Amboy Street in Brooklyn, New York. Reproductive rights and abortion were then, in some ways, as hotly contested as they are today. Even discussing these topics publicly was problematic, not to mention birth control, sexually transmitted disease treatment, and single parent pregnancy. was also illegal.
Sometimes called the Brownsville Clinic (referring to the Brooklyn neighborhood where it opened) and later the Margaret Sanger Clinic, the pioneering surgery is now a nonprofit that provides reproductive and sexual health care to hundreds of people. It was also the beginning of a certain Planned Parenthood. of clinics across the United States and around the world.
Sanger was a nurse, sexual health educator, activist, and author, but not a doctor. Seen through her today’s lens, she was also a complex person clinging to pseudoscientific and discriminatory beliefs.
Born into a working-class family, Sanger was one of 11 children. Her mother died at the age of 50, which she attributed to her mother’s multiple births and seven miscarriages, Sanger believes.
Later, while working as a nurse on the Lower East Side, Sanger witnessed many more tragedies related to reproductive health, including women suffering from the effects of botched abortions. (She thought Sanger was generally against abortion except to save her mother’s life, and that contraception was the best way to prevent the need.)
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With the help of her sister Ethel Byrne, a nurse, when she opened a clinic in Brownsville. and a friend named Fania Mindel, an activist, artist and translator – she and her staff provided information on contraception. It was limited to changes in behavior.
Margaret Sanger and Fania Mindel inside the clinic in 1916. Photo credit: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
But just 10 days after opening, the New York City Police Department closed the clinic for violating the Comstock Act. improper use. It was also illegal for him to send US Mail material related to sex education, pornography, birth control pills, abortion pills, and similar material. The act is named after Anthony Comstock, a postal inspector and activist who worked to censor or eliminate material he deemed obscene.
Due to follow-up laws passed in the early 20th century, it is illegal to rent, sell, or provide “obscene” publications or contraceptive or contraceptive-related articles, or to move such materials across state lines. has become illegal.
In the 1910s, Sanger wrote dozens of articles on sexuality and reproductive health for various left-wing publications, including the socialist New York Call, and eventually published a monthly newsletter, The Woman Level. She also often ran into legal trouble for violating the Comstock Act. Sanger has long advocated bringing this vital health information to people who might not otherwise have access to it. She argued that poor Americans should be able to plan their families. Perhaps more so than wealthy citizens. Low wages, precarious jobs, poor housing, and other social conditions can make it difficult to have children at certain times. She believed that the health and lives of these Americans would be much better with proper reproductive planning and education. have the means to do so) continues to this day.
The Brownsville clinic was in the heart of a working-class immigrant neighborhood. Nurses and Social Her workers spoke Yiddish, English, Italian, Russian and many other languages. They advertised their service in the immigration press, but there was no explicit mention of the term “contraception” or “contraception.” told the press about
On the first day of surgery, clinic staff met with 150 women. By the tenth and final day, we had seen 450 women. Many of these women found it easier to discuss reproductive issues with other women than with a male doctor.
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On October 26, 1916, an undercover policewoman came to the clinic. Once convinced that the law had been broken, she signaled a battalion of police officers to search the clinic, close it down, and arrest the founder. Sanger was released on bail the next morning and tried to reopen her clinic on November 14, but she was arrested again for indecent exposure. She tried to reopen her clinic two days after her, but it closed permanently after police ordered her landlord to vacate her rental agreement.
Sanger’s trial was a national media event. Her sister Ethel did as well, joining her strike as a hanger that made her headlines, especially after her jailers force-fed her. Sanger’s conviction was ultimately upheld, but in dismissing her appeal, a New York State Court of Appeals judge named Frederick Crane ruled that doctors should provide reproductive health services and contraceptive advice to couples. We have expanded the scope of what we can offer.
These rules were further liberalized in the 1930s, but still non-doctors like Sanger (including nurses and peer counselors) could not offer such advice. Nevertheless, Sanger managed to bring the issue to light.
Like many Progressive-era reformers, Sanger held morally rebellious views, including an endorsement of eugenics. For example, in 1926 she lectured on contraception at her Clan meeting in Coo Her Krux in New Jersey. In 1927, she loudly concurred with her Buck v. Bell judgment of the United States Supreme Court. In this ruling, the court allowed forced sterilization of “unfit persons,” such as those with mental disorders and mental health problems. The order resulted in tens of thousands of Americans undergoing forced sterilization.
In 1921, Sanger founded the American Birth Control Federation. It grew exponentially under her leadership, distributing educational materials on women’s health and reproductive issues. By 1953, the league was replaced by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.Sanger was its first president. In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that personal and private use of contraception is a constitutional right.
Sanger died in 1966, but Planned Parenthood remains active despite numerous activist, existential and judicial threats. Today there are over 600 Planned Parenthood clinics in the United States and it all started in Brownsville.
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