On October 16, 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. The clinic offered contraceptive information and devices to local women, many of them poor immigrants. At the time, distributing birth control information was illegal under obscenity laws. Within days, authorities raided the clinic and arrested Sanger and her staff. The case drew national attention and fueled debate over reproductive rights and free speech. Sanger’s activism helped lead to later legal changes and to the formation of organizations that became Planned Parenthood.
