Here’s an excerpt from a recent story in the Winston-Salem Journal by Janice Gaston (you can read the entire article by clicking here):

Anne Higgins, the mother of Margaret Sanger, died of tuberculosis at the age of 50. Sanger, a pioneer in reproductive issues, believed that the punishment her mother’s body took during 18 pregnancies sapped her strength and contributed to Higgins’ death.

Eleven of Higgins’ children survived. Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was the sixth. She bore just three of her own. Trained as a nurse, she spent much of her life educating women about contraception and advocating the development and use of birth control.

Her grandson, Alexander Sanger of New York, took up the issue of reproductive rights during the Reagan administration. In 1984, Reagan signed an executive order that prohibited the United States from giving money to organizations overseas that promoted or performed abortions.

“As the son of two doctors, as well as the grandson of Margaret Sanger, I thought that was an outrage,” Sanger said.

Here are links for two recent radio interviews: a discussion with Kalamazoo’s Gordon Evans on WMUK, and a talk on the WGBH Cambridge Forum.

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The Pill is the most studied drug in history, and a good thing too since it is taken by healthy women. Many of the benefits and detriments are well known and for the most part are disclosed on the FDA warning label. The benefit of pregnancy prevention is of course the major benefit, but there are others relating to disease and cancer prevention. Women experience different side effects, most of which are fully disclosed. One of the more serious downsides that gets less attention than it deserves is the loss of libido among some women on the Pill. This side effect is by no means universal and some women experience the opposite. It is clearly something needing further study. There has been extensive study of what the increased risks might or might not be of breast cancer and cardio-vascular events in some patients taking certain formulations of the Pill. The research and debate continues.
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This week marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of my grandmother, Margaret Sanger. On speaking engagements around the country, the question I am most frequently asked is, “What would your grandmother think about the seemingly unending struggle over reproductive freedom?”
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No sooner did I make my previous post than the Bush campaign launched TV and radio ads attacking John Kerry’s record on teen access to birth control and abortion. The new ads state that “Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions” and “voted to allow schools to hand out the ‘morning after pill’ without parents’ knowledge.” The ads continue: “He voted to take control away from parents by taking away their right to know. John Kerry has his priorities. The question is, are they yours?”
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John Kerry announced recently that “life begins at conception.” So?
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The anti-choice folks have come up with an amazing new strategy to win over the Democratic party. Having failed to change national polling numbers over the past quarter century on the abortion issue by their religious/moral arguments, they are now appealing to the self interest of the Democratic party: in short, their argument is that the Democrats are aborting themselves out of existence.
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Click here to read a recent review of Beyond Choice in the Washington Post.

Click here to listen to an interview with Alexander Sanger on Bill Thompson’s “Eye On Books.”