The Pill

Women always have and always will have the gift of birth, but sometimes that gift is unwanted. Before the 1920s, women could not really control pregnancy because they did not know how. It was a battle for women to gain knowledge about their sexual rights. Discussing contraception was always considered obscene and surprisingly was against the law. 

• Margaret Sanger opened a clinic in Brooklyn in 1916 mostly for poor and immigrant women to learn about contraceptive options. The clinic was closed and she was jailed because it was against the law at that time.

• In 1921 The Birth Control League was founded to provide information to women about their sexual health and reproductive choices.

• In 1936 a United States Circuit Court of Appeals decided that birth control information was not in fact obscene and it was no longer against the law to discuss it.
• In 1942 the Birth Control League, which became the Planned Parenthood Federation, which it is known as today, funded research leading to the development of the birth control pill. It was officially developed in 1960.  

• In 1966, in the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, the court ruled in favor of couples who wanted to receive contraceptive things from their doctors.

• Planned Parenthood is now the largest and oldest family planning organization. It provides information and items of contraception to more than 5 million women in the US and other countries.