Voting Station

Sadie Sachs

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Victim

The Resume

    (1883-1912)
    Russian-Jewish immigrant
    Resident of Lower East Side, New York City
    Married to Jake Sachs, a local truck driver
    Nearly died from septicemia, at the age of twenty-eight, after attempting a self-induced abortion in her apartment kitchen
    Was treated for two weeks by a local physician, assisted by then-nurse Margaret Sanger
    Reportedly was told by the doctor, after asking how to prevent an unwanted pregnancy in the future, to make her husband 'sleep on the roof'
    Fell into a comatose state after attempting a second self-induced abortion, this time dying before Sanger could make it to her apartment
    Case of her death and attempted abortions were frequently recounted by Sanger as transformational experiences that changed how she approached the issue of women's health
    Story of her death was recounted in both Margaret Sanger's 'My Fight For Birth Control' (1916; 1931) and her 'Autobiography' (1938)

Why she might be annoying:

    She attempted an abortion in front of her kids.
    Her three children were found crying near her unconscious body.
    She inadvertently provided the basis for the founding of one of the most controversial women's health organizations in the world.
    Growing skepticism has mounted over the years as to whether she ever existed or was merely an invention of Sanger's rhetoric.
    It has widely been assumed that her husband was physically abusive, but Sanger herself described him as 'kind' and 'thoughtful.'
    Sanger's description of both the event of her death and the impact it had on her life would grow more dramatic as the years went by.
    For example, she once claimed that she 'threw my nursing bag in the corner and announced ... that I would never take another case until I had made it possible for working women in America to have the knowledge to control birth.'
    Because she was an Eastern European immigrant, Sanger would have probably seen her as a 'human weed' and 'a reckless breeder' 'who spawned human beings that should never have been born' (if her own writings are any given indication).

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was described as having enough ingenuity to bring in extra earnings that enabled them to call a physician when they needed one.
    She was told after recovering from her first botched-abortion that one more pregnancy seen to term would probably kill her.
    She attempted to solicit advise from both her doctor and Sanger, but received no feedback (Sanger wanted to help but didn't know what to say at the time).
    In reality, both the doctor and Sanger probably knew exactly what to tell her, but kept silent to keep from breaking the Comstock Laws that prohibited distribution of birth control literature.
    Sanger described her as very attractive, whose suffering lent her a 'Madonna'-like expression.
    She was probably a composite of several women Sanger had known during her time as a nurse.
    Margaret Sanger may have assigned her a fictitious name in order to preserve the anonymity and respectability of her family.
    Her death provided the foundation for an entire movement in which women fought to have control over their bodies (kind of making her a less fortunate early 20th-century Norma 'Jane Roe' McCorvey).
    John Dewey called her death 'a Gesthemane,' for the 'origin of the devoted, persistent, unremitting work that has since been done.'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 38 Votes: 10.53% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 27 Votes: 22.22% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 32 Votes: 65.62% Annoying