Margaret Sanger. Portrait of Margaret Sanger (1883-1966), US birth control pioneer, outside a law court whilst being prosecuted for running an illegal birth control clinic. Sanger's work as a nurse amongst the poor of New York convinced her of the need for information on contraception to be distributed, a practice banned by law. She opened the first US birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916. In the same year she was prosecuted and sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment. On her release she appealed and won the right to give contraceptive advice to patients. She later founded the American Birth Control League and Birth Control Review, a monthly magazine.