Our Lady of Birth Control ─ A Cartoonist's Encounter with Margaret Sanger

Working class nurse. Mother of three. Labor organizer. Margaret Sangerbest known as the pioneer of birth controlwas revolutionary in more ways than one. In Sabrina Jones’s graphic novelOur Lady of Birth Control, the author illustrates the incredible life of Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), framing the biography with her personal experiences of coming of age at the height of the sexual revolution.

During her lifetime, Sanger transformed herself from working class nurse to an exuberant free-lover and savvy manipulator of the media, the law, and her wealthy supporters. Through direct action, propaganda, exile, and imprisonment, she ultimately succeeded in bringing legal access to birth control to women of all classes. Sanger’s revolutionary actions established organizations that eventually evolved into Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Jones’s autobiographical sections of Our Lady of Birth Control show her journey into activist art in response to the anti-feminist backlash of the Reagan era. From street theater and protest graphics to alternative comics, her path similarly follows in Margaret’s footsteps, encountering versions of the same adversaries. Her striking imagery evokes the late 20th century, recalling the ashcan artists of The Masses, an acclaimed magazine of Sanger’s formative years.

Powerful, poetic, and extremely personal, this historical graphic novel is an in-depth look at the woman responsible for bringing freedom to the masses.

Sabrina Jones is a painter and comic book artist, writer, illustrator, and editor commonly associated with the work of artist/activist collectives such as Carnival Knowledge and underground comics such asGirlTalk and World War 3 Illustrated. Her graphic novel Race to Incarcerate was named one of the Great Graphic Novels of 2014 by the Young Adult Library Services Association. She received a BFA in painting from Pratt and later an MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts. She currently lives in New York City with her partner Steve Stern and their two cats, Percy and Jezebel.