HISTORY
ABORTION
The Sexual Revolution in the United States (1960s-1980s AD)
Historians dispute what started the sexual revolution. Perhaps it began in Freudian psychology (1930’s), or the post-war Baby Boom (1946-1964), or the Kinsey Reports (1948-1953). But little doubt exists that the introduction of The Pill in 1960, which was released to the general public in 1965, added fuel to the already raging fire of the Sexual Revolution.
The sexual revolution is loosely identified with “Free love” mottos of the mid-1960’s, the Summer of Love (San Francisco, 1967), and the “Casual Sex” culture in 1980’s. Arguably, Western culture is still in the grip of the sexual revolution, but we can primarily identify the phenomena with the time period spanning the 1960’s, ‘70’s, and ‘80’s. The revolution was defined in large part as a positive interest in exploring sexual expression outside conventional and conservative sexual norms, especially Christian religious norms. Negatively, it represents a growing societal discontent over natural marriage, monogamy, and premarital chastity.
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Undoubtedly, the cultural causes were many, including 2nd wave feminism (AKA, “Women’s liberation”), pornography, radical politics, rock music, psychedelic drugs, Roe v. Wade (1973), no-fault divorce (1980’s), and many more. ( 1 ) But the most undeniable causal force fueling the sexual revolution was likely the pill, the birth-control pill. ( 2 ) In that little daily-dose of contraception, women and men alike saw a wall of separation form between sexual trysts and unplanned pregnancy. While not 100% reliable, it was effective and influential enough to radically reshape public perception of sex, marriage, and family.
Margaret Sanger (1879-1963 AD)
Margaret Sanger (1879-1963) was a social idealist, libertine, and political radical in the early 20th century. Serving as an unlicensed obstetrics nurse in tenement homes and poor neighborhoods she was transformed by the experience, eventually aligning her life’s work around the goal of ending poverty by preventing pregnancies among the poor. ( 3 ) By the turn of the 20th century, she was making a name for herself by promoting contraception, despite restrictive laws like the Comstock Act (1873). ( 4 )
She was a progressive socialist, and sexual libertine, with no interest in mainstream religion, so she often ran afoul of church norms and conservative laws most notably by distributing materials on do-it-yourself birth-control methods. By some reports, she was jailed no less than 8 times. ( 3 ) Nevertheless, in 1916 she opened an unlicensed birth control clinic in Brooklyn, NY ( 5 ) and in 1917 started the magazine, Birth Control Review. By 1921, she had gained enough traction to establish the American Birth Control League (ABCL), which then changed its name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1942. ( 7 ) Birth control primarily meant contraception. Feminists in that time, including Sanger (at least in her early years), treated abortion with scorn. ( 6 ) The American Birth Control League never officially practiced abortion. It did however practice eugenics, combining contraception and population control ideology, with the pseudo-credibility of “scientific racism.” For example, Sanger’s “Negro Project” (1939) targeted black neighborhoods for sterilization. ( 8 ) Sanger also gave a eugenics lecture before female members of the Ku Klux Klan (1938). ( 9 ) Eugenics remained a driving motivation among early progressives, Marxists, and – in Sanger’s case – progressive-Marxists. Sanger was a celebrated hero in progressive, pro-choice, and left-wing circles until recently when her racist ties finally proved too burdensome to bear in the era of Black Lives Matter.
Margaret Sanger. , 1922. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004672785/.
Eugenics and the Pill (1920 AD)
Active decades before the sexual revolution, Margaret Sanger did not frame birth control solely as a matter of individual choice or women’s health. Her writings consistently linked contraception to population control, social planning, and the improvement of society through selective reproduction, reflecting the influence of early twentieth-century eugenic thought. ( 10 )
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Sanger viewed fertility among certain populations—particularly the poor and those she deemed “unfit”—as a social threat. She argued that birth control was a necessary scientific tool for reducing what she described as defective or undesirable elements within society, an outlook that shaped both her activism and her support for technological solutions to fertility regulation, including research that later contributed to the development of the oral contraceptive pill. ( 11 )
Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization. New York: Brentano’s, 1922. Library of Congress, National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Formerly owned by Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947).
Sanger, Margaret. Woman and the New Race. New York: Truth Publishing Company, 1922. Digitized by the Internet Archive.
Sanger, Margaret. Woman and the New Race. New York: Truth Publishing Company, 1922. Digitized by the Internet Archive.
Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization. New York: Brentano’s, 1922. Library of Congress, National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Formerly owned by Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947).
Sanger's First Clinic (1916 AD)
​On October 1916, Margaret Sanger opened what is widely recognized as the first birth control clinic in the United States. ( 12 ) Established in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, the clinic operated in open defiance of federal and state obscenity laws, most notably the Comstock Act of 1873, which prohibited the distribution of contraceptive information and devices. ( 13 )
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The clinic served primarily working-class immigrant women and operated out of a small storefront. Contraceptive advice and devices were provided directly to patients, drawing swift attention from law enforcement. After only nine days, the clinic was raided and shut down. Sanger was arrested, convicted, and in 1917 served a thirty-day sentence in the Queens County Penitentiary. ( 12 )
The Sanger Clinic, 46 Amboy Street, Brooklyn.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Digital ID: cph.3c38888.
Though brief in operation, the Brownsville clinic proved historically consequential. ( 14 ) The legal challenges that followed exposed growing tensions between public health arguments and longstanding obscenity statutes. Subsequent court rulings began to allow physicians to prescribe contraceptives for medical purposes, weakening—but not overturning—the legal restrictions on birth control. ( 13 )
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​The clinic also marked a shift in public messaging. Rather than emphasizing moral restraint, Sanger framed contraception as a social response to poverty, illness, and population pressures. Often cited as a milestone in women’s health, the Brownsville clinic also reflected a broader effort to normalize the regulation of human fertility as a “societal good”, laying groundwork for the modern American birth control movement. ( 15 )
Birth Control Review (1917 AD)
Founded in 1917 by Margaret Sanger, The Birth Control Review was one of the most influential publications associated with the early American birth control movement. ( 16 ) Sanger served as its editor until 1929, and the journal continued publication in various forms until 1940. Issued monthly, it promoted contraception as a public health and social reform issue and sought to legitimize birth control within medical, scientific, and political circles by publishing articles from physicians, researchers, reformers, and social commentators. ( 17 )
Cover of the November 1923 edition of The Birth Control Review.
An inside page of the November 1923 edition of The Birth Control Review.
Cover of the November 1923 edition of The Birth Control Review.
Under Sanger’s leadership, the journal frequently framed fertility not only as a matter of individual decision-making but also within broader discussions of social responsibility, public health, and population concerns—ideas that were common among Progressive Era reformers. ( 17 ) Like many intellectual and social movements of the early twentieth century, The Birth Control Review reflected contemporary debates influenced by eugenic thought. ( 18 ) Some articles presented birth control as a means of improving society by addressing poverty, illness, and what were then perceived as hereditary social problems, including discussions about limiting births among certain populations.
By the time The Birth Control Review ceased publication in 1940, it had played a significant role in shaping public discourse around contraception, expanding professional engagement with birth control, and helping lay the institutional and ideological foundations for later family planning and reproductive health organizations. ( 19 )
Sanger, M., Birth Control Federation of America., American Birth Control League. The Birth Control Review. New York: Birth Control Federation of America.
Planned Parenthood (1942 AD)
Planned Parenthood developed out of the early twentieth-century American birth control movement, a period in which the distribution of contraceptive information was restricted by federal and state laws, including the Comstock Act of 1873. Reformers increasingly sought to reposition birth control as a matter of public health and medical oversight rather than moral or legal transgression.
Following early clinic-based efforts in the 1910s, birth control advocacy became more formally organized with the founding of the American Birth Control League (ABCL) in 1921. The ABCL emphasized scientific research, physician involvement, and educational outreach. Historian James Reed explains that the organization aimed to “recast birth control as a public health measure rather than a radical social demand.” ( 20 ) ​
As medical acceptance of contraception expanded, the organization underwent a strategic redefinition. In 1942, the American Birth Control League adopted the name Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Historian Andrea Tone notes that the term “planned parenthood” conveyed ideals of responsibility, family stability, and maternal health, distancing the organization from earlier political activism. ( 22 ) A contemporary organizational statement described its mission as helping families achieve “children by choice, not chance.” ( 21 )
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By the mid-twentieth century, Planned Parenthood had grown into a national network of clinics and educational programs and had become one of the most influential institutions shaping family-planning policy and practice in the United States. Its early development reflects a broader shift from grassroots reform efforts to professionalized reproductive healthcare within mainstream medicine.
Planned Parenthood. Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, March 3, 1965.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-49867. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/201646654/
The Fetal Tissue Donation Scandal
(2015 AD)
In 2015, Planned Parenthood became the focus of national controversy after the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released undercover videos alleging that Planned Parenthood affiliates were involved in the illegal sale of fetal tissue obtained from abortions. ( 24 ) Planned Parenthood denied profiting from fetal tissue transfers and stated that any payments received were limited to reimbursement for costs associated with donation and transportation. ( 25 ) Under U.S. federal law (42 U.S.C. § 289g-2), the transfer of fetal tissue for “valuable consideration” is prohibited, while reasonable payments related to costs such as transportation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage are explicitly permitted. ( 26 )
Multiple governmental investigations followed the release of the videos. Public reporting on these investigations, including a Texas grand jury inquiry in 2016, did not substantiate claims that Planned Parenthood engaged in unlawful fetal tissue sales for profit; instead, that investigation resulted in indictments against individuals affiliated with the Center for Medical Progress. While these findings did not resolve moral or ethical objections raised by critics, they are relevant to the legal assessment of the allegations.​
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In California, the controversy led to legal action focused on the methods used to obtain the recordings. In April 2016, the California Department of Justice, under then–Attorney General Kamala Harris, executed a search warrant on David Daleiden as part of an investigation into potential violations of state recording and privacy laws. After Xavier Becerra assumed the office of Attorney General in 2017, the California Department of Justice filed felony charges against Daleiden and an associate related to the undercover recording operation. Supporters of Planned Parenthood characterized these actions as enforcement of state law, while critics and pro-life advocates argued they reflected politically motivated efforts to discourage further dissemination of the videos.
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The controversy intensified calls to defund Planned Parenthood, with opponents arguing that taxpayer funding should not support an organization associated—whether legally or ethically—with practices they viewed as incompatible with respect for human life. The episode became a lasting political and cultural flashpoint in debates over abortion, government funding, and the limits of investigative activism.
Page Citations & Notes
1. Hall, Lesley A. “The ‘Sexual Revolution’ as Historical Process.” NOTCHES, October 11, 2018. NOTCHES article. Referenced for: the page’s framing of the sexual revolution as a broad historical process rather than a single event, and for the periodization around the 1960s–1980s.
2. FDA. “The Pill.” Referenced for: the page’s claim that oral contraception became a major force shaping sexual behavior and public attitudes toward sex, marriage, and pregnancy in the 1960s.
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3. Chesler, Ellen. Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Referenced for: the page’s summary of Sanger’s activism, arrests, clinic work, and public career.
4. United States. Comstock Act of 1873. Referenced for: the page’s statement that Sanger promoted contraception in conflict with restrictive obscenity laws, especially the Comstock Act.
5. Baker, Jehanne B. “Margaret Sanger and the First Birth Control Clinic in America.” American Journal of Public Health 101, no. 3 (2011): 400–401. Referenced for: the page’s claim that Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916.
6. Sanger, Margaret. Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentano’s, 1920. Referenced for: the page’s statement that Sanger’s early birth-control advocacy treated abortion with scorn even while promoting contraception.
7. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Our History.” Planned Parenthood history page. Referenced for: the page’s claim that the American Birth Control League later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942.
8. Sanger, Margaret. “Letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, December 10, 1939.” In The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger. Colorado legislative exhibit PDF reproducing the letter excerpt. Quoted/reference point: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…” Referenced for: the page’s discussion of Sanger’s Negro Project and race-related controversy.
9. Sanger, Margaret. An Autobiography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1938. Planned Parenthood fact sheet quoting the passage. Quoted/reference point: the page’s claim that Sanger spoke to a women’s auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan; the fact sheet cites An Autobiography, p. 366.
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10. Sanger, Margaret. The Pivot of Civilization. New York: Brentano’s, 1922. Referenced for: the page’s claim that Sanger linked birth control to social planning, population control, and eugenic ideas.
11. Sanger, Margaret. Woman and the New Race. New York: Truth Publishing Company, 1922. Referenced for: the page’s discussion of Sanger’s rhetoric about selective reproduction and the social role of contraception.
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12. Chesler, Ellen. Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Referenced for: the page’s statement that the Brownsville clinic was raided after nine days and that Sanger later served a jail sentence.
13. Kennedy, David M. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970. Referenced for: the page’s claim that later court rulings weakened legal restrictions on contraception for medical purposes.
14. Library of Congress. “The Sanger Clinic, 46 Amboy Street, Brooklyn.” Quoted/reference point: the page’s clinic image caption and identification of the Brownsville location.
15. McCann, Carole R. Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916–1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. Referenced for: the page’s claim that the clinic marked a broader shift toward normalizing fertility regulation as a social good.
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16. Sanger, Margaret, ed. The Birth Control Review. New York: Birth Control Federation of America. Online Books Page serial archive. Referenced for: the page’s description of the journal’s publication history, Sanger’s editorship, and its role in shaping birth-control discourse.
17. Gordon, Linda. The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Referenced for: the page’s claim that the journal framed fertility in terms of public health, social responsibility, and Progressive Era reform.
18. Kline, Wendy. Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Referenced for: the page’s claim that The Birth Control Review reflected debates influenced by eugenic thought.
19. Tone, Andrea. Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001. Referenced for: the page’s claim that the journal helped lay ideological and institutional groundwork for later family-planning organizations.
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20. Reed, James. From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society since 1830. New York: Basic Books, 1978. Quoted/reference point: the page quotes Reed’s summary that the American Birth Control League sought to “recast birth control as a public health measure rather than a radical social demand.”
21. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Annual Report and organizational history materials. Planned Parenthood history page. Quoted/reference point: the page cites the mid-century Planned Parenthood mission language “children by choice, not chance.” Referenced for: the 1942 renaming and organizational development.
22. Tone, Andrea. Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001. Referenced for: the page’s claim that “planned parenthood” was a strategic reframing tied to ideals of family stability, maternal health, and responsibility.
23. Library of Congress. “Planned Parenthood. Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, March 3, 1965.” Quoted/reference point: the page’s image caption and source identification for the 1965 Planned Parenthood photograph.
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24. Center for Medical Progress. 2015 undercover video releases and statements. CMP site. Referenced for: the page’s statement that CMP released undercover videos in 2015 alleging illegal sale of fetal tissue by Planned Parenthood affiliates.
25. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Statement from Planned Parenthood on New Undercover Video.” July 14, 2015. Planned Parenthood press release. Quoted/reference point: the page’s statement that Planned Parenthood denied profiting and said any payments were limited to reimbursement for actual costs such as transportation.
26. 42 U.S.C. § 289g-2. “Prohibitions regarding human fetal tissue.” Cornell Legal Information Institute. Quoted/reference point: federal law prohibits transfer of fetal tissue for “valuable consideration” while allowing reasonable payments associated with transportation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage.
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