frequently was that of the oppression of the government. In March of 1914, Sanger began to publish and edit the Woman Rebel, a militant journal. She urged the legalization of birth control to alleviate the sufferings of slum women, to free all women from tyranny of constant childbearing, and to further the class struggle. She also wrote a pamphlet, Family Limitation, in which she maintained that women are entitled to sexual fulfillment and challenged the laws against birth control, a term she had coined. The pamphlet contained the most complete information on contraceptive methods and techniques then available. Sanger had the pamphlets printed and stored secretly. In August 1914, Sanger was indicted by the Department of Justice for violation of the postal laws and faced a possible prison sentence of forty-five years. She fled to Canada and then sailed for England in October with a passport under an assumed name. After three days at sea, she cabled New York and had thousands of copies of Family Limitation distributed to union leaders around the country. In February of 1916, the government dropped its charges against her. When her only daughter, five-year old Peggy, died suddenly in November, sympathetic publicity convinced the government to drop Sangers prosecution. (Katz, 2) With both sons in boarding school, she toured the country for three months, speaking, making headlines, and incurring the opposition of the Catholic church. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in 1916. After returning from a national tour in 1916, Sanger opened the nations first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. (Katz, 2) A police vice-squad raid closed the clinic ten days later, and both sisters were arrested. While in jail, her sister refused to eat for 103 hours, almost causing her death. She was then force fed. In attendance of her trail were dozens of her clinic patients, along with wealthy women whose limousines crowded the stre...
