<P> The birth control movement in the United States was a social reform campaign from 1914 to around 1945 that aimed to increase the availability of contraception in the U.S. through education and legalization . The movement began in 1914 when a group of political radicals in New York City , led by Emma Goldman , Mary Dennett , and Margaret Sanger , became concerned about the hardships that childbirth and self - induced abortions brought to low - income women . Sanger , in particular , simultaneously sought to connect birth control to the organized eugenics movement , regularly appealing to the authority of eugenic scientists Karl Pearson , Charles Davenport , and others in her Birth Control Review from the early 1920s Such figures sought to prevent population segments they deemed genetically ' undesirable ' from reproducing . While seeking legitimacy for the birth control movement partly through the approval of organized eugenics , Sanger and other activists also worked on the political front . Since contraception was considered to be obscene at the time , the activists targeted the Comstock laws , which prohibited distribution of any `` obscene , lewd , and / or lascivious '' materials through the mail . Hoping to provoke a favorable legal decision , Sanger deliberately broke the law by distributing The Woman Rebel , a newsletter containing a discussion of contraception . In 1916 , Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States , but the clinic was immediately shut down by police , and Sanger was sentenced to 30 days in jail . </P>
<P> The birth control movement in the United States was a social reform campaign from 1914 to around 1945 that aimed to increase the availability of contraception in the U.S. through education and legalization . The movement began in 1914 when a group of political radicals in New York City , led by Emma Goldman , Mary Dennett , and Margaret Sanger , became concerned about the hardships that childbirth and self - induced abortions brought to low - income women . Sanger , in particular , simultaneously sought to connect birth control to the organized eugenics movement , regularly appealing to the authority of eugenic scientists Karl Pearson , Charles Davenport , and others in her Birth Control Review from the early 1920s Such figures sought to prevent population segments they deemed genetically ' undesirable ' from reproducing . While seeking legitimacy for the birth control movement partly through the approval of organized eugenics , Sanger and other activists also worked on the political front . Since contraception was considered to be obscene at the time , the activists targeted the Comstock laws , which prohibited distribution of any `` obscene , lewd , and / or lascivious '' materials through the mail . Hoping to provoke a favorable legal decision , Sanger deliberately broke the law by distributing The Woman Rebel , a newsletter containing a discussion of contraception . In 1916 , Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States , but the clinic was immediately shut down by police , and Sanger was sentenced to 30 days in jail . </P>
who pioneered the birth control clinic in the united states
who pioneered the birth control clinic in the united states
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger