When Children Are Wanted: A "This I Believe" Essay

Written by Margaret Sanger

Narrated by Margaret Sanger

In this essay originally aired in the 1950s, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger explains how wanting children before conception can lead to greater good in the world, in "When Children Are Wanted," her contribution to NPR’s This I Believe series.

This I Believe is a National Public Radio program that features Americans, from the famous to the unknown, completing the thought that begins with the series title. The pieces that make up the program compel listeners to re-think not only what and how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Featuring a star-studded list of contributors that includes John McCain, Isabel Allende, and Colin Powell, as well as pieces from the original 1950's series including Helen Keller and Jackie Robinson, the This I Believe collection also contains essays by a Brooklyn lawyer, a woman who sells yellow pages advertising in Fort Worth, and a man who serves on the state of Rhode Island's parole board. The result is a stirring, funny and always provocative trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of Americans whose beliefs, and the incredibly varied ways in which they choose to express them, reveal the American spirit at its best.

This short audio essay is an excerpt from the audiobook edition of the This I Believe anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Oct 3, 2006
• ISBN: 9781427203922

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was the founder and president of the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood. She organized the first World Population Conference in Geneva in 1927. Even into her 80s, Sanger traveled the world helping establish birth control clinics.