History 1700-017

Jerusha Cobb
Professor Hoskisson
4/3/17
Docs analysis 1 - Document #3

Margaret Sanger believed that all women had a right to birth control because women

deserved the right to choose if they want to have children, and it can liberate them from the age

old religious shackles of society of what women should be. She makes a powerful argument that

women deserve this right. Explaining that with-it women can use the new power it will grant

them to no longer be a tool to satisfy the lust of men, not bear children into a world that would

use them, and elevate themselves from being more than an instrument of procreation and express

themselves. Birth control offers women a new opportunity to break away from societies

standards of what women is and use the power it offers to gain more freedom in their lives.

Sanger states that the sex instinct is too powerful in humans to be controlled by any

church, a statement I agree with. She continues by saying when the Church said the only

legitimate sex is to procreate, it failed on all sides. The Church had "concentrated men's thoughts

upon the 'lusts of the body,'" and had "sown, cultivated and reaped a crop of bodily and mental

diseases." (Sanger per 2) If the Church in its teachings created many with mental and physical

disease it was only natural that no progress was made in society where men and women were

taught to deny their natural desires and bodily functions. If the sex instinct is too powerful to be

controlled, by the Church or man, then why fight against it when with birth control men and

women engage in passionate acts for the sake of passion and resulting in a fuller freedom? I

believe this is an important question that can be applied to today as much as during the 1920

when Margaret Sanger first started advocating for birth control.

Women are the only ones who by the expression of power can say no to bring unwanted

children into world that would use them. Sanger argues this by saying that women must express
History 1700-017
Jerusha Cobb
Professor Hoskisson
4/3/17
power in themselves by refusing the task of bringing unwanted children into the world to be

exploited by industry and slaughtered in war (Sanger par 3). I believe this somewhat simple but

powerful statement speaks volumes of the society and the roles it placed on women. To take the

power of childbirth and to say "no" to bringing a child into a world where that child would be

used for someone else's gain gives women the key to this power and allows them to assert

themselves in a way that was never possible up until this point in time.

Women can further assert their power by refusing to remain a simple instrument to the

sensual self-gratification of men (Sanger par 3). Sanger separates and defines the differences

between sex love, where women are freer to express themselves and passion, and sensual lust,

where women permit themselves to be an instruments used for the sole purpose of procreation.

By turning sex into more than an act of procreation or to please men, women can express

themselves in a way they were never able to before. Sanger writes, "Passion is worthy of

possession-Most men, who are any good, are capable of passion. You all enjoy ardent and

passionate love in art and literature. Why not give it place in real life?" (Sanger par 3) For

women to be free and equal to men they need to be able to enjoy in all passions of life.

According to Sanger, they need to be able to assert themselves, choose a life style they want, and

engage in exciting thralls of passion without the fear of being committed to motherhood. I find

Margret Sangers argument persuasive because with one drug she is advocating for women to

build a confidence in themselves and no longer see themselves as mere objects to be sold or

used.

Margret Sanger advocated for birth control so women can assert the power they have

always had but never been able to truly use. It places in the hands of women a new tool of self-

expression and realization, and develops women's responsibility and intelligence to use the
History 1700-017
Jerusha Cobb
Professor Hoskisson
4/3/17
freedom it grants to live a liberated and abundant life. In an arguably revolutionary article she

describes new possibilities for women that birth control will grant, and how all women deserve

the choice it will provide along with the power and self-expression. For women to be able to

choose whether to bring life into the word or not, a simple decision promises a trail to a better

future for women and women's rights starting with the choice of birth control.
History 1700-017
Jerusha Cobb
Professor Hoskisson
4/3/17

Work Cited

Sanger, Margaret The Need for Birth Control. The Pivot of Civilization, 1922.