The American Birth Control League (ABCL) was founded by
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger ( Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. She opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, founded Planned Parenthood, and was instr ...
in 1921 at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City.
The organization promoted the founding of birth control clinics and encouraged women to control their own fertility.
In 1942, the league became the
Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
History
The League was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921, and incorporated under the laws of
New York State
New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...
on April 5, 1922. Frances B. Ackerman served as the first Treasurer. Anne Kennedy was the Executive Treasurer.
Lothrop Stoddard and
C. C. Little were among the founding directors. Birth Control Leagues had already been formed in a number of larger American cities between 1916 and 1919 due to Sanger's lecture tours and the publication of the Birth Control Review. By 1924, the American Birth Control League had 27,500 members, with ten branches maintained in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
,
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, and the
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
province of
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
.
In June 1928, Margaret Sanger resigned as president of the American Birth Control League, founding the
National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control and splitting the
Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau from the League. Following this, the presidents of the ABCL were
Eleanor Dwight Robertson Jones (1928–1934), Catherine Clement Bangs (1934–1936) and C. C. Little (1936–1939), and one of its vice presidents was
Juliet Barrett Rublee. In 1939 the two were reconciled and merged to form the Birth Control Federation of America. In 1942 the name was changed to
Planned Parenthood
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization Federation of America.
Its headquarters were located at 104 Fifth Avenue, New York City from 1921–1930 and at various offices on Madison Avenue from 1931–1939. It was not associated with the
National Birth Control League, founded in 1915 by
Mary Coffin Ware Dennett, or the later
Voluntary Parenthood League.
[Constance M. Chen, "The Sex Side of Life," Chicago Tribune, p. 181.]
Goals and activities
The ABCL was founded on the following principles, here excerpted from Margaret Sanger's ''The Pivot of Civilization'':
We hold that children should be
# Conceived in love;
# Born of the mother's conscious desire;
# And only begotten under conditions which render possible the heritage of health.
Therefore we hold that every woman must possess the power and freedom to prevent conception except when these conditions can be satisfied.
At its founding, the ABCL announced the following purposes:
*To enlighten and educate all sections of the American public in the various aspects of the dangers of uncontrolled procreation and the imperative necessity of a world programme of birth control.
*To correlate the findings of scientists, statisticians, investigators, and social agencies in all fields.
*To organize and conduct clinics where the medical profession may give to mothers and potential mothers harmless, reliable methods of birth control.
*To enlist the support and cooperation of legal advisors, statesmen, and legislators in effecting the removal of State and Federal statutes which encourage
dysgenic breeding.
Margaret Sanger listed the following aims of the organization in the appendix of her book ''The Pivot of Civilization'':
*Research: To collect the findings of scientists, concerning the relation of reckless breeding to the evils of delinquency, defect and dependence;
*Investigation: To derive from these scientifically ascertained facts and figures, conclusions which may aid all public health and social agencies in the study of problems of maternal and infant mortality, child-labor, mental and physical defects and delinquence in relation to the practice of reckless parentage.
*Hygienic and Physiological: instruction by the Medical profession to mothers and potential mothers in harmless and reliable methods of Birth Control in answer to their requests for such knowledge.
*Sterilization: of the insane and feebleminded and the encouragement of this operation upon those afflicted with inherited or transmissible diseases, with the understanding that sterilization does not deprive the individual of his or her sex expression, but merely renders him incapable of producing children.
*Education: The program of education includes: The enlightenment of the public at large, mainly through the education of leaders of thought and opinion--teachers, ministers, editors and writers to the moral and scientific soundness of the principles of Birth Control and the imperative necessity of its adoption as the basis of national and racial progress.
*Political and Legislative: To enlist the support and cooperation of legal advisers, statesmen and legislators in effecting the removal of state and federal statutes which encourage dysgenic breeding, increase the sum total of disease, misery and poverty and prevent the establishment of a policy of national health and strength.
*Organization: To send into the various States of the Union field workers to enlist the support and arouse the interest of the masses, to the importance of Birth Control so that laws may be changed and the establishment of clinics made possible in every State.
*International: This department aims to cooperate with similar organizations in other countries to study Birth Control in its relations to the world population problem, food supplies, national and racial conflicts, and to urge all international bodies organized to promote world peace, the consideration of these aspects of international amity.
In 1921, the ABCL organized the First American Birth Control Conference at New York City, November 11–18, 1921. Subsequent conferences were held over the next two years in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
,
Albany, and
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The ABCL arranged the holding of the Sixth International Birth Control Congress in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1925. The ABCL published leaflets, pamphlets, books, and a monthly missal named ''Birth Control Review''. Margaret Sanger served as the first president of the organization.
See also
*
Birth control movement in the United States
The birth control movement in the United States was a social reform campaign beginning in 1914 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 pol ...
References
General references
*
*
*
*Buchanan, Paul D. (2009). ''American Women's Rights Movement: A Chronology of Events and of Opportunities from 1600 to 2008'', Branden Books. .
*
*Engelman, Peter C. (2011). ''A History of the Birth Control Movement in America'', ABC-CLIO. .
*
*
*McCann, Carole Ruth (1994). ''Birth control politics in the United States, 1916–1945 '', Cornell University Press. .
*Rosen, Robyn L. (2003), ''Reproductive health, reproductive rights: reformers and the politics of maternal welfare, 1917-1940'', Ohio State University Press, 2003. .
External links
* Margaret Sanger Papers Projec
Organization History* Margaret Sanger Papers Project,
The Town Hall Raid article about the founding conference of the ABCL. (free registration required)
Guide to American Birth Control League recordsa
Houghton Library Harvard University
{{Authority control
Birth control in the United States
Planned Parenthood