Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger is to be the focus of a new biopic, produced by Jennifer Lawrence‘s production partner, Justine Carriocchi. The film will be based on the book Terrible Virtue by Ellen Feldman.

Sanger opened the first reproduction rights clinic 100 years ago in 1916. Making birth control methods available to women for the first time, Sanger was charged with “distributing obscene materials”, referring to a pamphlet on contraception. She was subsequently convicted (although this wasn’t her first clash with the establishment – she had already been prosecuted for her book Family Limitations in 1914.)

In 1921, she went on to found what we now know as Planned Parenthood. Today, she bares the brunt of anti-abortion rhetoric – even though Planned Parenthood didn’t offer abortions until 1970, four years after Sanger died in 1966. Through her activism, Sanger supported not only the accessibility to birth control, but the advancement of women in society as a whole – she believed that by determining the when, or even if, they had children, women could have more autonomy over their own lives, and as a result, more equality.

In 2016, Planned Parenthood is more important than ever – with Trump vocally denouncing any support for the non-profit organisation, and votes to defund it happening within last year, many celebrities have come out in force to protect it. Jennifer Laurence, although not directly involved in the film, has commented that the defunding of Planned Parenthood “isn't an attack on abortions; it‘s an attack on women. Because Planned Parenthood is so much more (than abortion).“