Sanger launched her feminist newspaper The Woman Rebel, openly advocating birth control in defiance of the Comstock laws.
In March 1914, Margaret Sanger published the first issue of The Woman Rebel, a bold feminist monthly newspaper that would run for seven issues. The publication's masthead slogan, "No Gods, No Masters," signaled its radical intent to challenge both religious and legal authority over women's bodies.
The newspaper openly discussed contraception, women's rights, and labor issues at a time when the federal Comstock Act of 1873 classified information about birth control as "obscene" material illegal to distribute through the U.S. mail. By publishing frank discussions of contraception, Sanger deliberately courted prosecution to create a test case against these restrictive laws.
The publication led directly to Sanger's indictment on obscenity charges in August 1914, forcing her to flee to England to avoid trial. Though short-lived, The Woman Rebel was historically significant as one of the first American publications to explicitly use and popularize the phrase "birth control," a term Sanger is widely credited with coining or popularizing. It marked the public launch of her decades-long crusade against the Comstock laws and established her as a fearless, uncompromising voice for reproductive freedom, setting the stage for the clinic she would open two years later in Brooklyn.