The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
Volume III: The Politics of Planned Parenthood (1939-1966)
Volume III begins with the outbreak of war in Europe,
Sanger's initial opposition to American entry and her worry over her two
sons serving in the armed forces. The war years were quiet ones for her, as
she officially retired from the Birth Control Federation of America (renamed
Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942) and moved to Tucson to tend
her ailing husband. But Sanger's continuing efforts to direct the birth
control movement from afar according to her beliefs ran into opposition from
BCFA leaders in New York. The divisive issues include the Negro Project, which
Sanger hoped would bring birth control service to African-American women in
the rural South through education undertaken by black community leaders,
doctors and nurses; to clashes over Sanger's opposition to the
transformation of birth control clinics into women's health and infertility
centers. In the post-war years Sanger concentrated on the pursuit of her
decades-long dream of finding an effective non-barrier method of birth
control. This volume will trace Sanger's masterful direction of scientists,
philanthropists and birth control bureaucrats to combine forces toward the
development of the first birth control pill, released in 1960. The volume will
conclude with Sanger's final years in which she surveyed and evaluated her
life and work. In particular, her letters regarding the disposition of her
papers and her correspondence with biographer Lawrence Lader provide an apt
summary of her career.
This volume will be published in June 2010 by the University of Illinois Press.
All contents copyright © The Margaret Sanger Papers. All rights reserved.
Image from Our Margaret Sanger, 1959
Revised: Jan. 7, 2009