In the 1910s, as the birth control movement was born, two leaders emerged: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. While Sanger would go on to found Planned Parenthood, Dennett's name has largely faded from public knowledge. Each held a radically different vision for what reproductive autonomy and birth control access should look like in America.
Gripping ... A suspenseful recounting ... The author also describes the painful, destructive rivalry between her two subjects with narrative nuance and scholarly acumen ... Gorton’s riveting history of the first movement to grant women control over their bodies is essential reading now more than ever.
Timely and well-researched ... You can read a number of quotes from champions of reproductive rights which seem bracingly relevant and even radical today ... A closeup portrait.
Detailed ... Gorton tries valiantly to give Sanger the benefit of the doubt, justifying her true belief in population control for 'humanitarian and social justice,' but given the opportunity to eschew eugenics, Sanger did not ... Gorton’s timely, if somewhat dense, cultural and biographical history gives us much to think about as the arc of history is poised to bend back to a pre-1920s set of regulations for reproductive health.
