Margaret Louise Higgins Sanger (1879-1966) was an American social reformer and birth control advocate. When Sanger's mother died at age fifty, Sanger cited her mother's 11 pregnancies as the cause of her premature death. Sanger became nurse specializing in woman's reproductive health, and in 1916, opened the nations first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The clinic was raided, and Sanger and her staff were arrested. Sanger founded many organizations to promote birth control that merged to form The Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1939. Sanger also fostered a variety of research efforts to develop spermicidal jellies, foam powders, and hormonal contraceptives including the birth control pill.
