Today in Herstory: Fania Mindell and Margaret Sanger Found Guilty of Violating NY’s Birth Control l
(do not kid yourselves--THIS is exactly what the woman-hating reichwingers want to go back to. and look at burdette practically salivating over the possibility of abusing sanger and mindell the way he treated byrne.)
Today in Herstory: Fania Mindell and Margaret Sanger Found Guilty of Violating New York’s Birth Control Laws
February 2, 1917: The persecution of birth control advocates continued today with “guilty” verdicts announced in the cases of Fania Mindell and Margaret Sanger.
They were tried on January 29th for violating Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code. This statute prohibits anyone from selling or giving away information about contraception, or birth control devices themselves, and classifies both as “indecent articles.”
Mindell was convicted of selling a copy of one of Sanger’s booklets which gives basic information about reproduction and contraception. This “crime” occurred at what was the nation’s first – and so far only – birth control clinic, founded by Sanger, her sister Ethel Byrne and Fania Mindell. It operated from October 16th until the 26th of last year, when it was raided and closed. Sanger, who was arrested as she counseled three women about birth control, while openly displaying contraceptive devices, was found guilty as well. The verdicts of the three-judge panel (*******the defendants were denied jury trials*****) were read just hours after Ethel Byrne was freed from the Blackwell’s Island Workhouse by Governor Charles Whitman’s pardon. She had been in custody since her conviction on January 22nd for her role in running the clinic.
The reason for the four-day delay between the trial and the verdicts was so the judges could read the Sanger booklet, entitled “What Every Girl Should Know,” to determine whether it was in violation of the law, then read briefs submitted by the prosecution and defense concerning whether Sanger’s actions in opening and running the clinic could be legally justified.
. . . . .
Should Sanger and Mindell be given prison sentences, they, too, could be under the control of Commissioner of Correction Burdette Lewis. He made no secret of his hostility toward Ethel Byrne, and it was he who ordered her force-fed when she chose to protest her sentence with a hunger strike. So, vicious treatment can be expected for any imprisoned birth control advocate as the battle to legalize contraception goes on.
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/02/02/today-in-herstory-fania-mindell-and-margaret-sanger-found-guilty-of-violating-new-yorks-birth-control-laws/