Alexander sanger biography

His Past Became His Present, And His Future
by Brooke C. Stoddard ’69

Alex Sanger grew up in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., in Westchester County. His father was a surgeon, one of three children of renowned social reformer and feminist crusader Margaret Sanger. Alex’s mother was also a physician. Alex had three older brothers as well as a younger brother and younger sister. His father was Princeton Class of 1931 and rowed on the Lightweight Crew. The elder Sanger was a keen supporter of Princeton football and Princeton rowing, and, in fact, years later, the Princeton Rowing Association, when it began fostering women’s crews, named a shell for him — appropriately it became the boat of the women’s varsity.

On account of the elder Sanger’s interest in Princeton sports, the Sanger family often found itself on autumn Saturdays in Palmer Stadium rooting for the Tigers, impressions not lost on the young Alex.

After middle school, Alex went to Andover in Massachusetts and played “middling” hockey. An older brother was in the Princeton Class of 1965, so it’s no surprise Alex applied. He was accepted. He quickly set himself to Freshman and JV Hockey at Baker Rink and majored in History.

“I loved history,” Alex says. “I never felt the pull of another major.” A course that captivated him was James Ward Smith’s Philosophical Foundations of Democracy, which delved into the rights of individuals and their abilities to make their own decisions. At about the time he had to come up with a thesis topic, his legendary grandmother died, aged 87. At the time, Alex was abroad and learned much he had not known about Margaret Sanger from the obituary in The Times of London. “My father did not talk a great deal about her,” Alex says. “And for most of my growing up, my grandmother lived in Tucson. She’d come East to visit in the 1950s but cross-country travel was more troublesome then a

Mr. Sanger says: “My grandmother was arrested when she first opened America’s first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1916. At that time, birth control was illegal and reproductive rights did not exist. Two generations later, we are still fighting for the right to talk frankly with women about their reproductive health care and options regarding pregnancy and to give them the services they need.”

As president of PPNYC during the 1990’s Mr. Sanger led the agency in many political and social triumphs. In May 1991, Mr. Sanger and PPNYC’s Board of directors decided to reject federal funding tied to the Gag Rule that would have prohibited its medical professionals from mentioning abortion when counseling patients. Two years later, Mr. Sanger was invited to the White House to witness a newly-elected President Clinton ceremoniously end the gag rule in his first week in office.

Shortly after assuming the Presidency of PPNYC, Mr. Sanger launched the Clinician Training Initiative, designed to address the disturbing fact that few doctors were trained or willing to perform abortions. Since its inception in 1993, the program has trained over 100 Ob-Gyn residents and has accomplished two major policy victo

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American lawyer

Alexander C. Sanger (born November 15, 1947) is an American reproductive rights activist, and the former Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council. Sanger previously served as a United Nations Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador, as the President of Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC), and as President of its international arm, The Margaret Sanger Center International (MSCI), from 1991 to 2000. He is the grandson of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, who opened America's first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1916. He is not related to reproductive rights legal scholar Carol Sanger.

Early life

Alexander Campbell Sanger was born November 25, 1947, in New York City and grew up in Mount Kisco, New York. His father, Grant Sanger, a surgeon, was the second child of Margaret Sanger. His mother, Edwina Campbell, was a physician and was the granddaughter of William C. Durant, founder of General Motors.

Sanger attended the Bedford Rippowam School, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and Princeton University. At Princeton, he wrote his senior history thesis on his grandmother, Margaret Sanger. After service in the U.S. Air National Guard, Sanger attended Columbia Law and Business schools, earning both an MBA and a JD, and then became an associate and then partner of the New York law firm of White & Case. During this time, he earned an LL.M. degree in Taxation from New York University Law School.

He joined the board of Planned Parenthood of New York City in 1984 and was elected President and CEO in 1990.

Career

During Sanger's tenure as president of PPNYC during the 1990s, the organization rejected funds tied to the domestic gag rule, Title X, after the case Rust v. Sullivan lost in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. Such funds would have blocked PPNYC's medi