Reading The American Past Summary

Women of the modern age and those from the late 1920s have one great thing in common: the fight against unwanted pregnancies. During the early 1900s, men's opinions and choices carried a much greater weight than those of a woman. However, one choice that women really wanted to make was the choice on unwanted pregnancies. This however caused an uproar in the surrounding community, because there had been laws set before that prevented the use of any form of contraception. In studying Reading the American Past, Margaret Sanger's letters from desperate mothers, provided important evidence on why mother's wanted access to freedom from unwanted pregnancies.

Mothers don't come to the decision to terminate their child's life at ease. Mothers come to

The majority of the women wrote to Sanger about how they were once very healthy, and the pregnancies had dragged their health way down. Even with all of this happening to the mothers, the majority remained hopeful and content to their already born children. None showed any sort of resentment or remorse for the choices that they had made or were forced upon. Their main argument was that they wanted freedom from unwanted pregnancies through the form of contraception, because if they had anymore children they might die or couldn't support the new ones. In conclusion, the mother's didn't plead for help lightly; they were forced because of the situations that they were forced upon.

In summary, the early 1900s was a time where drastic change and reform happened. Caught in that time was Margaret Sanger who was imprisoned for opening the first birth control clinic in the United States. Following her arrest, hundreds of thousands of women wrote to her for advice because of their situation. These letters provided information on why they needed contraception and the struggles that they had to endure. To summarize, the women of then pushed hard for the woman's choice not the