Alexander Sanger

International Planned Parenthood Council

Alexander Sanger is the author of Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21^st Century, published in January 2004 by PublicAffairs. Mr. Sanger, the grandson of Margaret Sanger, who founded the birth control movement over eighty years ago, is currently Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council and has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. He also operates a website and weblog, www.AlexanderSanger.com, with commentary on reproductive rights issues. Mr. Sanger previously served as the President of Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) and its international arm, The Margaret Sanger Center International (MSCI) for ten years from 1991 – 2000. As a spokesperson and advocate, Mr. Sanger was named "One of the 100 Most Influential People on the Planet" in 1995 by Earth Times.

Mr. Sanger's background includes six years as a partner in the law firm of White and Case and three years running a manufacturing business. He holds a doctor of jurisprudence and master of business administration degrees from Columbia University, a master of laws from New York University, and a BA in history from Princeton University.

No Sex Please, We’re American – The Passion for Cutting International Family Planning Funds

Alexander Sanger

Why should the American taxpayer pay for an IUD for poor women in other parts of the world? Because private sex has public consequences, and these consequences have a price tag. We can pay a small amount now or a larger amount later.

No More Taj Mahals: We Can Reduce Maternal Deaths

Alexander Sanger

Conventional wisdom won't help reduce death and illness related to complications of pregnancy, childbirth or unsafe abortion. But a multi-facted approach to reducing maternal death and illness can.

Hate Speech Brings Down a Bull Moose

Alexander Sanger

Alexander Sanger, Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council and grandson of Margaret Sanger, founder of the birth control movement more than eighty years ago, discusses the murder of Dr. George Tiller and criticizes Right Wing talk shows, such as the O’Reilly Factor, for providing a justification for Tiller’s murder. He writes that: those defending or excusing the murder of Dr. Tiller adduce a perverse variation on the civil obedience argument of Gandhi and King and Thoreau---murder for a higher principle. They press that principle further to say that it was necessary to kill the doctor in order to save lives---the lives of unborn children he might have aborted. This is to adapt the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Greater Good justification (we dropped the bombs to end the war to save American and Japanese lives, as many as a million and more) to the abortion issue...

A Better Health Agenda for the Americas

Alexander Sanger

The new "Health Agenda for the Americas" is more significant for what it omits: sexuality education, safe abortion access, emergency contraception, and measures to combat domestic violence, than for what it addresses.

The No-Brainer Syndrome

Alexander Sanger

Both male circumcision and the new HPV vaccine have been called "no-brainers" in the fight to reduce HIV and HPV infection rates. But are they really the magic bullet solutions that they seem to be?