Margaret Sanger at Old South Meeting House

I was recently in Boston and found a life-size sculpture of my grandmother in the Old South Meeting House. The accompanying caption had her birthdate wrong (she always took years off her age – she was born in 1879) but it has a refreshingly positive summary of her life and work – to legalize birth control.

Mayor Curley indeed prohibited her speaking in Boston in 1923, 1924 and 1925. In 1925 the enlightened citizens of Boston held a meeting at Old South Meeting House to protest. He also banned the KKK since they were anti-Catholic, among other things. Curley was term limited, and his successor, Malcolm Nichols, continued the ban, and when in 1929 Ford Hall invited my grandmother and other illustrious radicals and rebels to speak at their annual banquet, only Margaret Sanger was prohibited from addressing the crowd. She strode onto the stage with a gag taped across her mouth and handed her speech to professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, who proceeded to read it.

From her speech April 16, 1929:

“To inflict silence upon a woman is supposed to be a terrible punishment. It is. But there are certain advantages and benefits to be derived from this awful punishment. . . . Silence inflicts thoughts upon us. It makes us ponder over what we have lost – and what we have gained. Words are, after all, only the small change of thought. If we have convictions, deep convictions, let us not waste them in words. Let us act them out. Let us live them!”

…

“I care nothing for Free Speech in and by itself. All of us place too much value on the power of the printed word and the power of the spoken word. We read too much. We listen too much. We live too little. We act too little. . . . I speak to you by my actions past and present. I have been gagged, I have been suppressed, I have been arrested, I have been hauled off to jail. Yet every time, more people have listened to me, more have protested, more have lifted their own voices, more have responded with courage and bravery. . . . As a propagandist, I see immense advantages in being gagged. It silences me, but it makes millions of others talk about me, and the cause in which I live.” 

In 1999, Barbara Walters called it “Perhaps this century’s first photo op.”

Roberta was the Board Chair of PPNYC for several years while I was President and CEO. She was one of a long line of dedicated, savvy and passionate board leaders that PPNYC was fortunate to have. She was unwavering in her support of abortion rights, marching on Washington, Albany and City Hall with the rest of us. She was a team player, consulting board and staff on all the issues we faced and how to surmount obstacles and move the agency forward collectively. She and I had weekly (or more often) in person meetings, keeping each other informed and working on strategies, both long term and short. Sometimes it wasn’t easy, but we were a team and had the utmost respect for each other. I cherished working with Roberta. And I cherished getting to know her husband Irv, to whom she was devoted. They were a great team.

After I left PPNYC for IPPFWHR, I would go to Roberta’s apartment for lunch. Public radio was always playing in the background. Roberta was always up on the news, politics and how we could hold politicians feet to the fire for abortion rights. She was a trouper until the end.

Sarah Weddington and I crossed paths several times over the years. The first was at the Carter White House in 1979, at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of my grandmother’s birth. It was a too dicey for President Carter to attend, so he delegated the ceremony to Sarah Weddington, his assistant on women’s issues. Faye Wattleton represented the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and several members of Congress attended, including Louis Stokes and James Scheuer. Sarah made some introductory remarks – she opened stating breathlessly that the President had just declared Mississippi a disaster area (Hurricane Frederic had hit the day before), and I said to myself, well, I’ve been to Mississippi and I knew that already. She was followed by Faye and then my father spoke. He told the story of his mother attacking a judge who was sentencing her for breaking the Comstock Laws. Dad said, “You men made those laws, we women didn’t!” This got big cheer from the assembled guests, which included most members of my extended family.

Sarah was most skilled dealing with the potentially unruly Sanger great-grandchildren. She handed out Roslyn Carter’s recipes for peanut brittle and other peanut delicacies while diplomatically escorting us to the exits.

In the 1990s, I invited Sarah to speak at the annual benefit for Planned Parenthood of New York City. She told of Norma McCorvey and the fight to get her a legal abortion. This was before McCorvey, who I later debated on television, switched to being anti-abortion and then switched back again just before her death. She was eloquent, smart, sassy and with a self deprecating sense of humor. Were are all in her debt.

My uncle Stuart Sanger, my father Grant Sanger (second from left), Faye Wattleton, Sarah Weddington, James Scheuer and Louis Stokes

The assembled Sanger family. I’m the fifth from the left.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/abortion-choice-life-pro-planned-parenthood-privacy-women-right-11637193303

The African nation of Benin’s legislature legalized abortion last week. Is the planet, minus Texas, on a roll to decriminalize abortion? Mexico, San Marino and now Benin.

Details in the attached article.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/benin-parliament-votes-legalise-abortion-2021-10-21/

IPPFWHR has become Fòs Feminist. see website for details.

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A very exciting future ahead!

By Alexander Sanger

In the last week, Texas moved to criminalize abortion, while across the border Mexico moved to decriminalize it. Granted one (Texas) was by act of the legislature and Governor, while in Mexico it was by a unanimous Supreme Court. What is going on politically to account for such a divergent result?

To get to the politics, I argue first get to the demographics. 

It was big news a month ago when the US census date were released, confirming trends that had been apparent for decades. The while US birth rate is on a continuing decline, falling behind that of Hispanics (which is also declining). Hispanics and other minorities are making up a greater percentage of the US population. In Texas, one headline in August 2021 stated that people of color made up 95% of the Texas population boom. In some quarters, in Texas and elsewhere, white fears of becoming a minority are real and not unfounded. In Texas, Hispanics constitute 40% of the population. There was much talk before the 2020 election of Texas turning Blue (i.e. Democratic) – this didn’t happen with Trump holding Texas with 52% of the vote. Still, Texas is getting closer to turning Democratic. White Republicans are panicking. 

Commentators have focused on Republicans using abortion politics to cement white evangelical support (and some conservative Hispanic-Catholic support).

What happens when abortion is criminalized? Again, commentators say poor women, especially minorities, are targeted and most affected, being less able to travel to nearby states where abortion is legal. True. But white, poor women are affected too (and middle-class white women as well), their options hampered. Which demographic is more likely to turn to the back alleys? Which more likely to give birth? Time will tell.

This country has been through campaigns to criminalize abortion before. In the 19^th Century, states (and the Federal government through its Comstock Laws) enacted measures criminalizing birth control and abortion, which had been legal since our nation was founded. What led to this?

The main factor, I argue, was demographics and immigration and the threat to white Protestant hegemony from Irish Catholic immigration. Hence the creation of the Know-Nothing Party (the 19^th Century version of today’s arch-reactionary Republican Party). The Whites noted that their birth rate was less than the fecund Irish immigrants. Just one quote from those times (1874) from a prominent physician: “The annual destruction of fetuses has become so truly appalling among native American (Protestant) women that the Puritanic blood of ’76 will be but sparingly represented in the approaching centenary.” See my book, Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21^st Century for a longer discussion.

The physician was talking about white women’s abortion rates. Not minority or Irish. White. Has anything changed? I argue that the Texas legislature can see the demographic handwriting on the wall as did the 19^thcentury physician. How to stop the decline of white population? Stop white women from having abortions. Stop the white wives and daughters of the legislators from terminating pregnancies. Grow the white birth rate. Make abortion illegal and arguably white women will obey, or so they hope. Do the legislators care about minority women’s reactions? Not one whit. Probably they hope minority women will go to back allies and lose, if not their lives, then their fecundity. A double victory for white supremacy.

What happened after abortion was criminalize in the 19^th century? Did it work? The US birth rates continued their century-long decline. Women found a way. Too often it was to a back alley. Alternatively, a huge black market in home grown potions and abortifacients grew up, some of which may have worked, but too many of which killed the woman. 

These days there are a legal drugs that cause a miscarriage. These are dispensed in this country and across the border in Mexico. I can see the cross-border trade ballooning in misoprostol and other abortifacient drugs, especially as the Mexican states eliminate their criminal abortion laws. Women will find a way. But too many women will see their health or life damaged or lost and the birth of an unwanted child. 

As for Mexico, more study is needed on their racial politics. They are not post-racial as recent studies have shown. But the stark racial-political division is less evident. 

The Texas legislature is playing a cynical game that it can’t win. Women, though, are the losers.