This Day In History: The Country’s First Birth Control Clinic
Posted by: Annika Harris
Filed in:
news
10:30AM, Thursday October 16th 2008
On October 16, 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the nation’s first family planning clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Women waited on line to get information on birth control. Nine days later Sanger was arrested for violating the Comstock obscenity laws, which made it illegal to send any contraceptive devices and birth control information through the mail and banned the distribution of information on abortion for educational purposes. Unfortunately, the clinic was closed, but that didn’t stop the birth control movement. She later opened clinics, known as “Mothers’ Health Centers,” in Manhattan and the Bronx, which later became branches of Planned Parenthood of New York City. The American Medical Association didn’t recognize birth control as an essential health service until 1937, but Sanger had championed the benefits for two decades prior. [Planned Parenthood]
TheFrisky.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
DJ
wrote on October 16 2008 @ 11:11 am: [report]
I would like to offer my services as a volunteer copy editor for Frisky. You gals have some great posts, but they’re tarnished by sloppy grammar and spelling! Send ‘em my way and I’ll sort them out.
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.
Serena
wrote on October 16 2008 @ 11:32 am: [report]
I have to say that as a journalism major, I don’t see any problems with this particular post.
DJ
wrote on October 16 2008 @ 11:46 am: [report]
One does not say “wait on line”—that implies that you’re either a) “on” the internet or b) actually on top of a line, waiting.
One says “wait in line.” You form a part of the line in which you are waiting.
It’s not that this post was riddled with grammatical errors or anything, it’s just that on any given day, there are several glaring spelling/ grammatical errors throughout the site (e.g. “it’s” is a contraction, meaning “it is”, and “its” is the possessive form of “it”). They detract from the otherwise-entertaining posts.
Amelia
wrote on October 16 2008 @ 12:04 pm: [report]
@DJ In New York, and I think much of the East Coast, people say “on line” versus “in line”.
And for the its, it’s, yadda, yadda, yes, as the Editor, I am aware of the distinction. Sometimes little errors like those slip through the cracks and when noticed or called attention to, we fix them immediately.