Margaret Sanger, The Case for Birth Control (1917)
Is woman’s health not to be considered? Is she to remain a producing machine? Is she to have time to think, to study, to care for herself? Man cannot travel to his goal alone. And until woman has knowledge to control birth she cannot get the time to think and develop.
. . .
No woman can call herself free who cannot choose the time to be a mother or not as she sees fit. This should be woman’s first demand.
Our present laws force women into one of two ways: Celibacy, with its nervous results, or abortion. All modern physicians testify that both these conditions are harmful; that celibacy is the cause of many nervous complaints, while abortion is a disgrace to a civilized community. Physicians claim that early marriage with knowledge to control birth would do away with both. For this would enable two young people to live and work together until such time as they could care for a family. I found that young people desire early marriage, and would marry early were it not for the dread of a large family to support. Why will not society countenance and advance this idea? Because it is still afraid of the untried and the unknown.
Use the passage to answer the question.
Which of the following BEST describes how this passage reflects the larger movement of women’s liberation in early twentieth-century American society?
A.
Sanger cites eugenics as evidence that certain women are unfit to be mothers.
B.
Sanger contrasts the pressures of motherhood with the carefree life of the iconic flapper.
C.
Sanger argues that women's right to vote was only a first step toward the right to birth control.
D.
Sanger invokes ideas of freedom and choice to support a women's right to delay having children.