who was the first lady promoter of birth control for women?

Answer 1

Probably Margaret Sanger:

" Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) campaigned from 1914 until 1937 to remove the stigma of obscenity from contraception. Working with a doctor to save the life of tenement dweller, Sadie Sachs, from the affects of a self-induced abortion, she made her decision to fight the Comstock Law and to insure that women received contraceptive education, counseling and service. She is credited with coining the phrase, birth control.

In 1914, Sanger published and mailed a magazine, Women Rebel, advocating the use of birth control techniques she had learned about in France. In 1916, she opened the first birth control clinic in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Hundreds of women attended the clinic; but within one month police arrested Sanger, her sister, and her friend and closed the clinic. Sanger then turned her energy toward the legislative process; the Suffragette Movement contributed to her feeling that legal reform was possible if newly won political power was used. Sanger’s ultimate goal was to make medically prescribed birth control legal and available to anyone for any reason—personal, social, economic or medical."

At least, the first well-known woman to do so in the USA.

"After separating from her husband in 1914, Sanger, who believed in sexual liberation, began to have affairs with several men, including H.G. Wells. It was about that time that she published her first issue of The Woman Rebel, a magazine for radical feminists who advocated the right to practice birth control. Three issues were banned for promoting the use of contraception, and in August 1914, Sanger was indicted on nine charges of violating the Comstock Law.

To avoid prosecution, Margaret fled the country to England under the assumed name, Bertha Watson. Once the ship entered international waters, Margaret ordered 100,000 copies of Family Limitation to be distributed. In that 16-page pamphlet, Sanger wrote about sex education, abortion and birth control, which included different types of contraceptive methods and instructions for their use.

While in England, Sanger met several British radicals and feminists who helped her to justify the use of birth control. It was then that she met Havelock Ellis, a psychologist whose theories of female sexuality helped Sanger expand her arguments for birth control; arguing, for example, that a woman should be able to enjoy sexual relations without the worry of becoming pregnant.



In 1915, during Margaret's stay in England, William Sanger was arrested and sentenced to 30 days in jail for distributing a copy of “Family Limitation” to an undercover postal agent. To gain media attention for her cause, Sanger returned to the United States in October 1915 to face the charges against her. In November 1915, Sanger's five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died suddenly of pneumonia. Strong sentiment and public outcries persuaded the government to drop all charges against Sanger.

After her charges were dropped, Sanger embarked upon a world tour to promote birth control. Although she was arrested in several cities, the publicity it drew helped further her cause. She visited a Dutch birth control clinic that had developed a flexible contraceptive diaphragm. When fitted by trained medical staff, the device was the most effective method of birth control to date. Sanger then returned to the United States to pursue her cause.

On October 16, 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, with the help of her sister, Ethel Byrne. The Brooklyn, New York, clinic offered counseling, birth control information and supplies to dozens of women from the borough's Brownsville section. Nine days later, police closed down the clinic and confiscated its literature, condoms and diaphragms. Sanger, Byrne and their staff were arrested and charged with “maintaining a public nuisance.” Sanger and Byrne were convicted; while the former spent 30 days in prison, the latter went on a hunger strike for the cause. News of their arrest brought the birth control controversy into public view and gave Sanger a new-found group of supporters."

Answer 2

Margaret Sanger was the first major one, but as to the first one in history...I don't know.

It could have been somebody else.

Answer 3

Marie Stopes was a pioneer in this area,I'm not sure if she was the first though.