Early Career
Margaret Sanger was an advocate for the legal distribution of birth control in the United States from the 1920s until her death in 1966. Sanger worked closely with Hannah Stone and later Abraham Stone at the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in New York City. The Bureau, originally founded by Sanger as the Birth Control Clinical Research Center in 1923, was renamed in her honor in 1942.
Hannah Stone received letters from women of various backgrounds requesting information on safe and legal birth control. She was arrested in 1929 in a raid on the Birth Control Clinical Research Center for providing birth control to women.
Abraham Stone partnered with international family planning colleagues in efforts to prevent global overpopulation during the 1950s.
Importation of contraceptives from the United Kingdom was closely monitored by United States customs authorities. In 1942, Stone’s colleagues in London shipped volpar paste, used in contraception devices in the United Kingdom, to him. The package received extra screening upon its arrival in New York City.
While Stone expanded services at the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau to include fertility services and marital counseling, his national profile increased. He lectured internationally and contributed to popular publications like Readers Digest.
Women preferring natural methods of contraception and family planning were advised by Planned Parenthood to use rythmeters to calculate their fertile days each month. Women adjusted the dials of the devices according to their menstrual cycles to tabulate their fertile and sterile days.
A Marriage Manual was published by Hannah and Abraham Stone as a guide to healthy marriages. It was one of the first books published on the subject of marriage, and was widely received by its audience. The book was written in the character of a soon-to-be married couple consulting a physician about sexual relations in marriage.