Margaret Sanger Clinic
Forever...The Margaret Sanger Clinic is the New York City clinic where Katherine consults a social worker about birth control and receives a two-month supply of pills. The visit gives practical form to her conviction that preventing pregnancy is her responsibility: she seeks information, attends both a group discussion and a private counseling session, and leaves with a prescription and instructions for its use.
Location and Access
Katherine contacts the clinic by telephone from a booth near her school office during study hall. After reading informational pamphlets the previous night, she calls to ask about obtaining birth control. The clinic arranges an appointment at 3:00 at its address on 22nd Street and 2nd Avenue. Her nervousness is apparent in the account of the call: she is sweating while she speaks, unsure whether the booth is hot or anxiety is making her perspire.
She reaches the clinic at 2:45 and gives her name to the receptionist. The appointment is organized as two stages rather than a single consultation: first a general session with other attendees, then individual counseling. That structure makes the clinic a place both for explaining contraceptive methods and for discussing a visitor’s personal circumstances.
Information and Counseling
Katherine’s group includes seven other people, among them two young couples. A physician and a social worker explain the different methods of birth control and invite questions. Katherine does not ask any during this general discussion; her more personal conversation takes place afterward, alone with social worker Linda Kolker.
The private session begins with brief talk about the weather and Katherine’s family before Kolker asks why she has come. Katherine explains that she considers it her responsibility to make sure she does not become pregnant. The clinic’s counseling therefore meets a goal Katherine has already articulated for herself, rather than supplying that goal on her behalf.
Prescription and Narrative Significance
After the counseling, Kolker gives Katherine a prescription and a two-month supply of pills, explaining the instructions and making sure Katherine understands each detail. They also discuss possible side effects, with instructions to call the clinic immediately if any occur. The visit ends with a practical plan for contraception and continued access to advice if a problem arises.
Katherine leaves by taxi for Penn Station and catches the 5:17 train, eager to tell Michael what she has done. Instead, when she gets home, her mother tells her that Michael has the flu. Two days later Katherine becomes ill with the same bug, with a temperature of 104 degrees, and is too weak and dizzy to reach the bathroom unaided. The clinic has provided the prescription, but the illness postpones the conversation Katherine had hoped to have with Michael. In the story, the visit marks a step toward taking responsibility for her own reproductive choices, while its immediate aftermath shows that acting on that decision does not resolve every difficulty surrounding it.
