Margaret Sanger on Birth Control as an Ethical Necessity

Introduction

Margaret Sanger was one of the most influential advocates for birth control in the early twentieth century. Her writings challenged Church-based sexual morality, argued for the concrete benefits of smaller families, and positioned birth control as an ethical necessity for human self-realization. The following analysis addresses three of her central arguments in turn.

The Decline of Traditional Sexual Morality

Sanger wrote: "Humanity, we are glad to realize, is rapidly freeing itself from this 'morality' imposed upon it by its self-appointed and self-perpetuating masters. From a hundred different points the imposing edifice of this 'morality' has been and is being attacked. Sincere and thoughtful defenders and exponents of the teachings of Christ now acknowledge the falsity of the traditional codes and their malignant influence upon the moral and physical well-being of humanity."

According to Sanger, traditional concepts of sexual morality were imposed on human society by Church authorities who, through appointing themselves as moral arbiters for everyone, forced their moral views and definitions upon society. Their continual efforts in that regard, reinforced by the strength of institutional momentum, perpetuated these ideas through successive generations. Sanger refers to "a hundred" different attacks on these traditional moral ideas without specifying each one, except to suggest that Christians who are sincere and who understand the deeper intent of Christ's teachings no longer defend what she saw as the harmful corruption of Christian ideals — rules of conduct she considered more harmful than beneficial to humanity.

Sanger further explained: "Psychology and the outlook of modern life are stressing the growth of independent responsibility and discrimination as the true basis of ethics. The old traditional morality, with its train of vice, disease, promiscuity and prostitution, is in reality dying out, killing itself off because it is too irresponsible and too dangerous to individual and social well-being. The transition from the old to the new, like all fundamental changes, is fraught with many dangers. But it is a revolution that cannot be stopped."

Sanger explained that the relatively new field of psychology and the more general, modernized view of human affairs were leading people toward independent thought about self-responsibility and objective ethical concerns as the basis for moral definitions, rather than the Church's ancient dogmatism about the dangers of sexuality. Sanger acknowledged that change in such fundamental notions takes time and can be expected to come only with difficulty. Ultimately, her belief was that a new ethical objectivism would eventually succeed in replacing older ideas as more and more people came to recognize that those older ideas undermine individual happiness and self-responsibility.

Sanger wrote: "The smaller family, with its lower infant mortality rate, is, in more definite and concrete manner than many actions outwardly deemed 'moral,' the expression of moral judgment and responsibility. It is the assertion of a standard of living, inspired by the wish to obtain a fuller and more expressive life for the children than the parents have enjoyed. If the morality or immorality of any course of conduct is to be determined by the motives which inspire it, there is evidently at the present day no higher morality than the intelligent practice of Birth Control."

The Advantages of Smaller Families

Sanger clearly believed that the traditional biblical injunction for humanity to "be fruitful and multiply" was a less moral position than its converse. According to Sanger, true morality was about maximizing the quality of life of children and families precisely by limiting family size, rather than encouraging people to have many children in blind adherence to Church teaching. Birth control, in her view, was one of the keys to reversing that focus and improving living conditions within families.

She also wrote: "Woman's power can only be expressed and make itself felt when she refuses the task of bringing unwanted children into the world to be exploited in industry and slaughtered in wars. When we refuse to produce battalions of babies to be exploited; when we declare to the nation: 'Show us that the best possible chance in life is given to every child now brought into the world, before you cry for more! At present our children are a glut on the market. You hold infant life cheap. Help us to make the world a fit place for children. When you have done this, we will bear you children — then we shall be true women.'"

Sanger expressed the view that the constant supply of children resulting from traditional moral belief effectively cheapened the value of human life. She was clearly referencing the devastation of the First World War and the waste of more than eight million lives in the trenches of Europe. Her argument is that the concept of "fruitful multiplication" only enables nations to use their children as cannon fodder in warfare. Her final point is also reminiscent of a recurring argument made by contemporary pro-choice advocates, who suggest that concern for unborn life should be matched — or preceded — by efforts to improve the lives of children already born.

Sanger wrote: "Birth Control is an ethical necessity for humanity today because it places in our hands a new instrument of self-expression and self-realization. It gives us control over one of the primordial forces of nature, to which in the past the majority of mankind have been enslaved, and by which it has been cheapened and debased. It arouses us to the possibility of newer and greater freedom. It develops the power, the responsibility and intelligence to use this freedom in living a liberated and abundant life. It permits us to enjoy this liberty without danger of infringing upon the similar liberty of our fellow men, or of injuring and curtailing the freedom of the next generation. It shows us that we need not seek in the amassing of worldly wealth, not in the illusion of some extra-terrestrial Heaven or earthly Utopia of a remote future the road to human development. The Kingdom of Heaven is in a very definite sense within us. Not by leaving our body and our fundamental humanity behind us, not by aiming to be anything but what we are, shall we become ennobled or immortal. By knowing ourselves, by expressing ourselves, by realizing ourselves more completely than has ever before been possible, not only shall we attain the kingdom ourselves but we shall hand on the torch of life undimmed to our children and the children of our children."

Conclusion

Across all three arguments, Sanger consistently framed birth control not merely as a practical measure but as a moral imperative rooted in self-determination and human dignity. Whether critiquing Church-imposed sexual codes, advocating for the welfare of children in smaller families, or defining reproductive freedom as an ethical necessity, Sanger situated birth control at the center of a broader struggle for human liberation from institutional authority and dogmatic tradition.