Roxane Gay: Margaret Sanger, a Women’s Fighter
Roxane Gay, a writer and professor at Purdue University, is the author, most recently, of " Bad Feminist." She is on Twitter.
Updated March 20, 2015, 5:46 PM
Margaret Sanger didn’t just introduce the idea of birth control into our culture at large, she freed women from indenture to their bodies. Through her activism, Sanger introduced and eventually normalized the discourse about women’s bodies and fertility so women could decide not only when, but if, they would have children. No longer were women’s bodies subject — politically, personally, or medically — to the whims of men.
Margaret Sanger
Allyn Baum/ The New York Times
Sanger’s efforts to promote birth control were originally directed toward working class women who were disproportionately affected by a lack of access to reproductive healthcare. When, in 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, Sanger expanded her efforts to include middle class women so more women would be empowered to control their fertility. This organizing lead to the creation of Planned Parenthood, which continues to serve women and men, offering preventive healthcare, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and reproductive counseling.
After the passage of Roe vs. Wade, many assumed that we were done fighting for reproductive freedom and unfettered access to abortion services. Recent legislative attacks on reproductive freedom in states like Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Arkansas — attacks that have included 20-week abortion bans, mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, and unreasonable medical facility restrictions placed on abortion clinics that force them to close — are an unfortunate reminder that despite Margaret Sanger’s efforts, women are perilously close to becoming once more indentured to their bodies.
Not only are we facing such legislative attacks on reproductive freedom, we’re also seeing a strange cultural backlash against birth control. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled, for example, that owners of privately held corporations don’t have to provide employees with certain contraceptives that contradict their religious beliefs. Corporations were, essentially, given more rights than women.
Sanger was not without her controversies but neither were any of the men who currently grace our currency. Placing Margaret Sanger on the $20 bill will remind us of what she has done for women and our reproductive health and how the fight for reproductive freedom is an ongoing one. We need this reminder now, more than ever. |
