Describe Margaret Sanger's contributions toward the legalization of contraception.

What will be an ideal response?


Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) believed in free love and sexual rights. A mother of three, an active feminist, and the person generally credited with coining the term birth control, Sanger was motivated not only by her compassion for people struggling with issues of contraception, but also by personal experience. Her mother had 18 pregnancies in 22 years and was dead by age 45 of cervical cancer and tuberculosis.
Sanger actively campaigned to decriminalize contraception. She decided to fight the contraceptive part of the Comstock Act and advance the sexual literacy of women through contraceptive education, counseling, and clinical services. In 1914, she published The Woman Rebel, a periodical that advocated women's rights, including the right to contraception. To avoid arrest, she went to Europe; while there, she observed much more tolerant and humane laws and visited clinics that distributed information about contraception to families. After returning to the United States, she opened the first birth control clinic in 1916. She was arrested and later sentenced to jail, but this short-lived clinic started a movement in favor of birth control, which ultimately allowed doctors to prescribe contraception to patients in 1938.
Sanger's efforts to remake public policy regarding contraception continued throughout her lifetime. She lived to see birth control pills become a reality and contraception sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Interdisciplinary Studies

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Yeast infections are transmitted sexually

Indicate whether the statement is true or false.

Interdisciplinary Studies

One distinction between the Moral Judgment Scale and the Defining Issues test is that

a) scoring the Moral Judgment Scale includes subjective judgment, while the Defining Issues test is scored completely objectively. b) reliability but not validity are high for the Moral Judgment Scale, while both are high for the Defining Issues test. c) the Moral Judgment Scale is appropriate for children only, while the Defining Issues test is appropriate for adults also. d) the validity of Moral Judgment Scale for religiously conservative people has been challenged, while no such challenge has been made of the Defining Issues test.

Interdisciplinary Studies

What does research say about the effect of homosexual parenting on children?

A. Research shows that the mental health of children raised by gay parents is no different from that of children raised by heterosexual parents. B. Research shows that an overwhelming number of children raised by gay parents are sex offenders. C. Research shows that children raised by gay parents often lead more troubled lives than children raised by heterosexual parents. D. Research shows that an overwhelming number of children raised by gay parents turn gay themselves.

Interdisciplinary Studies

Which of the following is a difference between sexually transmitted infections (STIs) caused by bacteria and viruses?

A. Viruses that cause infections are microscopic in nature, unlike bacteria that cause infections. B. Bacterial infections can be cured using antibiotics, unlike virus infections. C. Virus infections cause symptoms that cannot be treated or reduced, unlike bacteria infections. D. Bacterial infections are caused by microbes, unlike virus infections.

Interdisciplinary Studies