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Section 1145 of the state’s penal code declared that physicians could distribute contraceptive information for the cure and prevention of disease. Margaret knew that, legally, the law was intended for men; to protect them from the diseases acquired through sexual contact, but she believed that the law could be interpreted to include women who were susceptible to disease and death from too much childbearing. She was in desperate need of money and turned to rich women like Mrs. George Rubilee and Mrs. Charles Tiffany, who responded by forming the “Committee of 100″ to help fund Margaret’s movement (Miller 221).

The trial, which had been postponed several times, opened in January of 1917. Margaret was offered leniency in return for a promise that she would never break the law again. Margaret replied, “I cannot promise to obey a law I do not respect” and was sentenced to 30 days in a workhouse (Douglas 122).

On January 8, 1918, the decision that Margaret had been waiting and hoping for finally came; Judge Crane of the N.Y. Court of Appeals interpreted section 1145 of the penal code to include the health of married women which permitted doctors to give them birth control advice. In the months that followed, Margaret focused her energy on her new monthly publication The Birth Control Review. Aside from asking for money from the wealthy elites of her time, this was the first real break that Margaret had with her straightforward grassroots past. After the end of World War I, there was a worldwide urge to suppress the radical left. Margaret, astute as always, realized this and decided to gain support for her birth control movement by “promoting it in the basis of medical and public health needs”. Despite her efforts, Margaret faced a rising tide of opposition on from the Church, which, apparently, could control both the government and the police force of New York. Still, the public, the press, and the medical profession were all backing her now and, in 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League.

The League was part of Margaret’s campaign to educate the general public and gain more mainstream support for birth control. In what seemed almost a contradictory move, Margaret sought the support of the liberal wing of the eugenics movement. In retrospect, it seems like a logical next step as she was also seeking support from the socialist reform movement at the time. Also, it is in keeping with the views that Margaret held at the time; she rationalized birth control as a viable means to reducing, what she felt to be, genetically transmitted mental or physical defects. In her more radical moods, Margaret would even advocate sterilization for the mentally incompetent, though she never felt that birth control should be supported or implemented solely on the basis of class, ethnicity, or race.

Also around this time Margaret met and was courted by Noah H. Slee. Mr. Slee was the president of a successful oil company, wealthy, and in love with Margaret Sanger. After following her around the globe on one of her many speaking tours, Noah proposed marriage to Margaret. Not eager to make the same mistake twice, Margaret set forth some conditions (that included financial and sexual independence as well as the use of her own last name). Slee agreed to her terms and they were wed in 1922; it is not surprising that he also became the main founder of Margaret’s birth control movement (Miller 228-229).

Aware that the current resources available to women were not enough, Margaret soon realized that she would need an extension of the Brownsville Clinic in order to handle the influx of patients and requests for information. Margaret decided to strike while the iron was hot and take the opportunity to found a research bureau that could be used as a model for future clinics. For months Margaret labored to bring together a skilled and prominent group of physicians and scientists, even going so far as to obtain a sociologist and a psychologist. The end result was a group that was to be the board for her new clinic; all she needed now was a doctor willing to take the risk of heading up the clinic staff. Dr. Dorothy Bocker accepted the position and in January of 1923, the Clinical Research Bureau opened at the same Fifth Avenue address as the American Birth Control League, though they were to be kept separate so that the League might escape criticism when the Bureau came under attack. The opening was not publicized, in fact, it was not even announced publicly for two years; patients were referred directly from the League. The Bureau soon became a center of study for doctors and scientists from all around the country. The number of patients grew so fast that the Bureau soon had to relocate to larger facilities (Miller 230).

In 1928, Margaret Sanger angrily resigned as the head of the American

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