PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Margaret Sanger

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 15, 2002: Margaret Sanger

By Doreen Baingana

((THEME)
)
VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of

the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them.
Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after
year. This changed because of efforts by activists¹ like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe
and sure method of preventing pregnancy² was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She
also believed birth control was necessary for human progress.

Margaret Sanger was considered a rebel in the early Nineteen-Hundreds.

VOICE TWO:

The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Three in the eastern state of New
York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins.

Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said
he taught her to be an independent thinker.

Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth
control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies³. She was always tired and sick.
Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become
a nurse.

Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the
United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies
in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because
of their low position in society.

Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to
daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem.
Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother.

VOICE ONE:

In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own
middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic
and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New
York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor⁴ union organizer. She learned methods of protest
and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism.


Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in Nineteen-Thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also
met with members of Socialist⁵ political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the
United States prepared to change women’s lives.

VOICE TWO:

At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist
party, and the medical profession. But, she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote.
She decided⁶ to continue working alone.

One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman
Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the
traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, Nineteen-Fourteen. The Woman Rebel
was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems,
marriage, the sex business, and revolution.

Sanger had an immediate⁷ goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending
birth control devices through the mail.

VOICE ONE:

The Woman Rebel became well-known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of
materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the
Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper.

Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed⁸
descriptions of birth control methods. In August, Nineteen-Fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating
the Comstock Act.

Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the
trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among
women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also
increased public interest in her and in women’s issues.

VOICE TWO:

Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she
decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for
reproductive freedom for women.

While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia⁹. The death made
Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of
birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her.

VOICE ONE:

Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United
States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in Nineteen-Sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language
expert helped her. One-hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week,
police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and
was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail.

With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In
Nineteen-Twenty-One, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the
creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research
for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Three.
Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one.

Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. In the Nineteen-
Thirties she helped win a judicial¹⁰ decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth


control.
VOICE TWO:
Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the Nineteen-Twenties.

She stopped using direct opposition¹¹ and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents.
Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic¹² control.
Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable¹³” human beings should not be born.

Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was
wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements.
VOICE ONE:
Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In the Nineteen-

Forty-Two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation¹⁴ of America. It became a major national health

organization after World War Two.
Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International
Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two after an international conference in
Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents.

The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every
country in the world is now a member of the international group.

VOICE TWO:
Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died
in Nineteen-Sixty-Six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most
life-changing political movements of the twentieth century.

(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁵. I’m Shirley

Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of

America.

 

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1 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

10 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

11 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

12 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

13 undesirable   

adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子

参考例句：

• They are the undesirable elements among the employees.他们是雇员中的不良分子。
• Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化。

14 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

15 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。