Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
I said I recognized that many of those before me of diverse outlooks and
temperaments would support birth control propaganda if carried out in
what they regarded as a safe and sane manner, although they did not
countenance the methods I had been following in my attempt to arouse
working women to the fact that having a child was a supreme
responsibility. There was nothing new or radical in birth control, which
Aristotle and Plato as well as many modern thinkers had demonstrated.
But the ideas of wise men and scientists were sterile and did not affect
the tremendous facts of life among the disinherited. All the while their
discussions had been proceeding, the people themselves had been and
still were blindly, desperately, practicing birth control by the most
barbaric methods—infanticide, abortion, and other crude ways. I might
have taken up a policy of safety, sanity, and conservatism—but would I
have secured a hearing? Admittedly physicians and scientists had far
more technical knowledge than I, but I had found myself in the position
of one who had discovered a house was on fire and it was up to me to
shout out the warning. Afterwards others, more experienced in executive
organization, could gather together and direct all the sympathy and
interest which had been aroused. Only in this way could I be vindicated.
Since my charge had forestalled his, the venerable Dr. Jacoby either had
to answer me or shift his ground. He chose the latter course and talked
on the question of quality in population, which might perhaps have been
construed as in my favor.
Many of the women present were comfortable examples of the manner in
which birth control could enable them to lead dignified lives. Elsie
Clews Parsons made the suggestion that twenty-five who had practiced it
should rise in court with me and plead guilty before the law. But only
one volunteered. What surprised me most was the voice of Mary Ware
Dennett announcing that she represented the National Birth Control
League and that that body was going to stand behind Margaret Sanger in
her ordeal—subscriptions were urgently needed for the League.
The next morning when I arrived at nine o’clock at the Federal Court
building more than two hundred partisans were already in the corridors.
A great corps of reporters and photographers was on hand. The stage had
been set for an exciting drama.
Judge Henry D. Clayton and Assistant District Attorneys Knox and Content
arrived at ten-thirty, apparently feeling the effects of the publicity
of the night before.
The moment Knox moved to adjourn for a week I was on my feet asking
immediate trial, but Judge Clayton postponed the case. Everybody went
home disappointed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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