Margaret Sanger Quotes

Powerful Margaret Sanger for Daily Growth

About Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was an influential American nurse, social activist, and birth control pioneer, whose work significantly shaped the reproductive rights movement in the United States. Born on September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York, to Irish immigrants Michael and Anne Higgins Sanger, Margaret was the fifth of eleven children. Her mother's early death due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth instilled in Margaret a deep empathy for women and fueled her lifelong crusade for reproductive justice. In 1897, Margaret began training as a nurse at the White Plains Hospital. She continued her education at New York's School of Nursing and later studied midwifery in Germany. Upon her return to the U.S., she worked as a visiting nurse in New York City, where she was appalled by the dire living conditions and lack of access to quality healthcare for poor immigrant families. In 1914, Sanger opened the country's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, sparking controversy and arrests for distributing information about contraception. Despite facing numerous legal challenges, Sanger continued to advocate for women's reproductive rights and founded Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1942. Sanger's groundbreaking book "Women and the New Race," published in 1920, outlined her vision for a world where every woman could control her own reproduction. She coined the term "birth control" and advocated for accessible, affordable contraception as a means to improve women's health, reduce poverty, and promote gender equality. Throughout her life, Sanger faced intense opposition but remained unwavering in her commitment to women's rights. Her tireless efforts eventually led to the legalization of birth control in 1965, just a year before her death on September 6, 1966. Today, Margaret Sanger is remembered as a champion of reproductive freedom and an iconic figure in the fight for women's rights.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"No woman can call herself free until she can choose a life for herself."

This quote by Margaret Sanger underscores the importance of personal autonomy and self-determination, particularly for women. The statement asserts that a woman's freedom is incomplete if she does not have the ability to choose her own path in life. In essence, the quote highlights the belief that every individual, and in this case, women specifically, should have control over their lives, making informed decisions about their future, thus enabling them to achieve personal fulfillment and true independence.

"Birth control, my particular aide, consists in selecting cases of contraception in which to intervene, and after appropriate instruction, to furnish them with such means as will prevent conception."

This quote by Margaret Sanger indicates her belief in the use of birth control as a tool for family planning and population control. She advocated for providing education and access to contraceptives to specific cases, so they can prevent unwanted pregnancies. Her approach was selective and strategic, emphasizing informed decision-making and responsible use of contraceptives to improve individual and societal wellbeing.

"I believe that the world and every man's life is Bound by law. That the only possible, just and satisfactory settling of human affairs is by voluntary agreement between competent adults."

This quote by Margaret Sanger emphasizes her belief in the importance of self-determination, voluntarism, and mutual consent in personal and societal matters. She suggests that the world's order should be based on agreements made freely among competent adults, upholding justice and satisfaction for all parties involved. This perspective underscores a respect for individual autonomy while seeking fairness and harmony in human relations.

"We who profess open-mindedness are most intolerant of all other viewpoints."

This quote by Margaret Sanger suggests a paradoxical aspect of open-mindedness, implying that those who claim to be open-minded may actually exhibit the highest level of intolerance towards divergent viewpoints. In other words, while professing a commitment to understanding multiple perspectives, they may unintentionally shut out or dismiss opposing views, demonstrating an ironic form of intolerance.

"I think the greatest sin in the world is to bring children into it who are doomed to lead lives of misery."

This quote by Margaret Sanger expresses her deep concern for the well-being of children, particularly those born into difficult or impoverished circumstances where they may face a life of suffering and hardship. Sanger believed that it was a moral responsibility to consider the potential quality of life for future generations before bringing them into the world. This perspective underscores the importance of family planning, education, and social support systems in ensuring that every child is born with the opportunity to lead a happy, fulfilling life.

The submission of her body without love or desire is degrading to the woman's finer sensibility, all the marriage certificates on earth to the contrary notwithstanding.

- Margaret Sanger

Love, Woman, Desire, Sensibility

Against the State, against the Church, against the silence of the medical profession, against the whole machinery of dead institutions of the past, the woman of today arises.

- Margaret Sanger

Woman, Medical, Profession, Arises

She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it.

- Margaret Sanger

Death, Through, Coerce, Babe

War, famine, poverty and oppression of the workers will continue while woman makes life cheap. They will cease only when she limits her reproductivity and human life is no longer a thing to be wasted.

- Margaret Sanger

Woman, Will, Makes, Limits

Women of the working class, especially wage workers, should not have more than two children at most. The average working man can support no more and and the average working woman can take care of no more in decent fashion.

- Margaret Sanger

Woman, Average, More, Working Man

Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.

- Margaret Sanger

Woman, Been, Which, Struggles

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts, and politicians violently denounce the politicians of other countries.

- Margaret Sanger

Other, Conceal, Violently, Denounce

No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.

- Margaret Sanger

Woman, Own, Will, Herself

When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race.

- Margaret Sanger

Deep, Mom, New, Accident

Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man's attitude may be, that problem is hers - and before it can be his, it is hers alone.

- Margaret Sanger

Woman, Will, May, Regardless

A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.

- Margaret Sanger

Born, Race, Mothers, Slave

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