Today in Herstory: Margaret Sanger Calls for Repealing Laws Blocking Contraception Access and Inform

[niyad]

(make no mistake, THIS is exactly what the woman-haters want to return to, NOT just stopping abortions)


Today in Herstory: Margaret Sanger Calls for Repealing Laws Blocking Contraception Access and Information

January 29, 1917: Three thousand people cheered Margaret Sanger’s speech earlier tonight at Carnegie Hall, as she called for the repeal or overturning of Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code and all similar statutes.



This law makes it a criminal offense for anyone to sell or give away contraceptives – or even information about birth control. The audience also expressed its support for Ethel Byrne, who is being force-fed after engaging in a four-and-a-half day hunger strike in the Workhouse on Blackwell’s Island. She is serving a 30-day sentence for the “crime” of distributing birth control information.

Sanger was able to attend tonight’s meeting despite having been on trial today on the same charges as her sister, Ethel Byrne. The three-judge panel has not rendered a verdict yet, and therefore has not imposed the expected sentence.

Sanger’s trial opened with testimony from the female police officer who arrested her on October 26th, ten days after she, Byrne and Fania Mindell opened the nation’s first birth control clinic. Officer Margaret Whitehurst had been to the clinic before, in an undercover role, to gather evidence. Whitehurst said that when she entered the clinic on the 26th, she observed Sanger sitting in a back room with an open box of Aseptikon Vaginal Suppositories on the table. Sanger was talking to three women on the other side of the table. After putting down the Aseptikon, Sanger picked up two rubber birth control devices, one for men and one for women, and continued talking.

Officer Whitehurst said that at this point, she and two male officers placed Sanger under arrest, and after interrogating the three other women, took Sanger to the station house in a patrol wagon. After more witness testimony and lengthy arguments from Assistant District Attorney Edward Cooper and defense lawyer Jonah Goldstein, Presiding Judge Freschi said: “This is a very close case. The court will reserve decision and ask both sides to submit briefs.”

. . . .

http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/01/29/today-in-herstory-margaret-sanger-calls-for-repealing-laws-blocking-contraception-access-and-information/