Reproductive Rights of Women

The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of Margaret Sanger's founding of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Margaret Sanger also helped to support and create a number of similar organizations, both in the U.S. and internationally during her lifetime. The still controversial goals of these organizations included collecting and disseminating information on human fertility and birth control, sex education, and population problems; along with organizing programs, conferences and other activities related to birth control education.

Much of her efforton behalf of the reproductive rights of women was rejected in the U.S., although her work led to the Supreme Court decisions that favored these rights in Roe v. Wade. Embittered by birth control's failure to secure a place in America's social welfare and public health systems, Sanger turned her full attention abroad and helped found many international organizations.

For two more decades, until her death at the age of 87 in 1966, she struggled valiantly to build family planning associations in the developing world and to promote programs that would not lose sight of her concern for the precarious status of women.

Knowledge of and use of birth control, sex education, and the right to choose were the key principles advocated by Margaret Sanger and other leaders of the women's equal rights movement. They preached that many other social problems were a result of denying women these rights and bringing children into the world that women didn't plan and could not support.

Students can examine one of more of these still controversial social issues that relate to the work of Margaret Sanger and other feminine right leaders. Teachers can select from this list -- first click the More Issues link in the Pro vs. Con section, then select one:

• Pathfinder #1: Abortion
  
  
• Pathfinder #2: Birth Control
  
  
• Pathfinder #3: Child Abuse
  
  
• Pathfinder #4: Overpopulation
  
  
• Pathfinder #5: Poverty
  
  
• Pathfinder #6: Teenage Pregnancy

The unique SIRS five-step process for all Leading Issues ensures that students use multiple resources and critical thinking to support either side of an issue you assign or they select.

ProQuest also provides four unique report and presentation models for students to use that are specifically tailored to the five-step format of each Leading Issue. You can reach these resources by accessing your SIRS subscription, then clicking Educators' Resources in the top right-hand corner.

• Writing a Research Paper
  
  
• Writing a Mini-Research Paper (student and teacher management versions)
  
  
• Creating a PowerPoint Presentation
  
  
• Creating a Mini-Debate (student and teacher management versions)

This coordinated approach to the five-step process make reporting and presentation easier and ensures organized critical thinking in each report. Teachers should explore these models to see which are most suited for their students.