What did Margaret Sanger do?

Margaret Sanger was a birth control advocate during the first half of the 20th century. This did not mean that she was a eugenicist; rather, she wanted to prevent unwanted pregnancies because many women already could not support their families. She began her advocacy after an impoverished woman died in her arms after the woman tried to give herself an abortion. She helped create resources for the medical development of the first birth control pill.

She went to jail to fight for every woman's right to know how her body functioned and to have safe and legal access to birth control. In her time, the diaphragm was the preferred method.

Margaret Sanger is often vilified as a eugenicist. Eugenics was very popular at the turn of the 20th century and many, many white people bought into some level of it's message. Sanger identified as a "Positive Eugenicist". She believed that the best of all groups should be encouraged to reproduced and that others, especially the mentally disabled, should not.

Much of her work has been redefined by the anti-choice movement to show her as a eugenicist on the level of Hitler. This is incorrect. Yes, she thought that forced sterilization for the "feebleminded" should be done. She states in her writings that all races carry great potential and that women who were " the best of their race" should be encouraged to reproduce.
These were Margaret Sangers accomplishments. In 1921 Sanger established the Planned Parenthood Foundation, which was originally named the American Birth Control League. She persisted to work with clinics and to help raise awareness and money for her cause. She founded the Birth Control Review in 1917. Then in 1937 both the disbursement of contraceptive material through the mail and birth control as a legitimate medical aid were legalized. Her crusade lasted until her death in 1966, but the debate she sparked on birth control still exists.

One thing she did NOT accomplish, thankfully, was the successful implementation of the Negro Project which would bring birth control to the black community in NY:


www.blackgenocide.org/negro.html

More about Sanger in the related link below.