Anthony Comstock, o primeiro ativista pró-vida e pró-família da história moderna

32 the segregation of "morons, misfits, and the maladjusted" and for the sterilization of "genetically inferior races."

Published today, such a book would be labeled immediately as abominably racist and totalitarian. But writing when she did, Margaret only gained more acclaim. Her cause seemed unstoppable now. The revolution had truly begun. Even so, Margaret was miserable. Her private life was in utter shambles. Her marriage had ended. Her daughter caught cold and ultimately died of pneumonia. Her boys were neglected and forgotten. And her once ravishing beauty was fading with age and abuse.

Desperate to find meaning and happiness, she lost herself in a profusion of sexual liaisons.

She went from one lover to another, sometimes several in a single day. She experimented with innumerable erotic fantasies and fetishes, but satisfaction always eluded her grasp. She began to dabble in the occult, participating in sĂŠances and practicing Eastern meditation.

She even went so far as to apply for initiation into the mysteries of Rosicrucianism and Theosophy.

When all else failed, she turned to the one thing that she knew would bring her solace: once again, she married into money.

J. Noah Slee was the president of the Three-in-One Oil Company and a legitimate millionaire. A conservative church-going Episcopalian, he opposed everything that Margaret stood for, but found her irresistible anyway.

At first, Margaret resisted his pleas for marriage. She still believed that it was a "degenerate institution." But nine million dollars was a mighty temptation. It was a temptation she simply could not resist. But just to make certain that the new relationship would not interfere with her affairs and her cause, she drew up a prenuptial agreement that Slee was forced to sign just before the wedding ceremony. It stipulated that Margaret would be free to come and go as she pleased with no questions asked. She was to have her own apartment and servants within her husband's home, where she could entertain "friends" of her own choosing, behind closed doors. Furthermore, Slee would have to telephone her from the other end of the house even to ask for a dinner date.

'Margaret told her lovers that with that document, the marriage would make little or no difference in her life — apart from the convenience of the money, of course. And she went out of her way to prove it; she flaunted her promiscuity and infidelity every chance she could get.

She was still terribly unhappy, but at least now she was terribly rich, too.

Immediately, Sanger set herself to the task of using her new wealth to further the cause. She opened another clinic — this time calling it a "Research Bureau" in order to avoid legal tangles.

Then she began to smuggle diaphragms into the country from Holland. She waged several successful "turf" battles to maintain control over her "empire." She campaigned diligently to win over the medical community. She secured massive foundation grants from the Rockefellers, the Fords, and the Mellons. She took her struggle to Washington, testifying before several congressional committees, advocating the liberalization of contraceptive prescription laws. And she fought for the incorporation of reproductive control into state programs as a form of social planning. With her almost unlimited financial resources, she was able to open doors and pull strings that had heretofore been entirely inaccessible to her.

Margaret was also able to use her new-found wealth to fight an important public relations campaign to redeem her reputation. www.juliosevero.com