Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
Many times I studied Section 211 of the Federal Statutes, under which
the Post Office was acting. This penal clause of the Comstock Law had
been left hanging in Washington like the dried shell of a tortoise. Its
grip had even been tightened on the moral side; in case the word obscene
should prove too vague, its definition had been enlarged to include the
prevention of conception and the causing of abortion under one and the
same heading. To me it was outrageous that information regarding
motherhood, which was so generally called sacred, should be classed with
pornography.
Nevertheless, I had not broken the law, because it did not prohibit
discussion of contraception—merely giving advice. I harbored a burning
desire to undermine that law. But if I continued publication I was
making myself liable to a Federal indictment and a possible prison term
of five years plus a fine of five thousand dollars. I had to choose
between abandoning the _Woman Rebel_, changing its tone, or continuing
as I had begun. Though I had no wish to become a martyr, with no
hesitation I followed the last-named course.
I gathered our little group together. At first we assumed Comstock had
stopped the entire issue before delivery, but apparently he had not,
because only the A to M’s which had been mailed in the local post office
had been confiscated. We took a fresh lot downtown, slipped three into
one chute, four in another, walked miles around the city so that no
single box contained more than a few copies.
The same procedure had to be pursued in succeeding months. Sometimes
daylight caught me, with one or more assistants, still tramping from the
printer’s and dropping the copies, piece by piece, into various boxes
and chutes. I felt the Government was absurd and tyrannical to make us
do this for no good purpose. I could not get used to its methods then. I
have not yet, and probably never shall.
The _Woman Rebel_ produced extraordinary results, striking vibrations
that brought contacts, messages, inquiries, pamphlets, books, even some
money. I corresponded with the leading Feminists of Europe—Ellen Key,
then at the height of her fame, Olive Schreiner, Mrs. Pankhurst, Rosa
Luxemburg, Adele Schreiber, Clara Zetkin, Roszika Schwimmer, Frau Maria
Stritt. But I also heard from sources and groups I had hardly known
existed—Theosophist, New Thought, Rosicrucian, Spiritualist, Mental
Scientist. It was not alone from New York, but from the highways and by
ways of north, south, east, and west that inspiration came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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