At the time, her diatribe violated the country’s obscenity laws, so like all good rebels, Sanger was indicted — a roadblock she circumvented by fleeing the country to avoid trial. In 1916, however, she made her triumphant return to open the first family planning clinic in the U.S. “The clinic was about giving people really effective contraception for the first time,” says Linda Gordon, professor of history at New York University and author of ‘90s birth control bible, Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: Birth Control In America. “Diaphragms were the only birth control around then — but they had to be fitted for each woman and for the most part, they were illegal in the U.S. so Sanger had to smuggle them in illegally from Europe.” Back then, a degree called the Comstock Act, enacted in 1973, made it a misdemeanor to possess, share, or send via mail anything deemed “obscene, lewd or lascivious” — which included birth control of any form — even if prescribed by a doctor.
