From getting arrested for handing out birth control to becoming the most vocal proponent of abortion rights: This is the 101-year history of Planned Parenthood

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Planned Parenthood

J. Scott Applewhite (Associated Press)

Cheered on by Carol McDonald from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, women rally on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 11, 2013.

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While Planned Parenthood has become the go-to poster child for the abortion debate in the US over the past year, the organization has weathered political turmoil for the last 101 years.

In 1916, three women in New York were arrested for handing out birth control information and, after going to court, opened the first branch of what is now Planned Parenthood today.

Even though abortions are just one of many services offered at the nonprofit's health centers, Planned Parenthood has often caught ire from antiabortion activists and conservative politicians.

Here's how Planned Parenthood went from a small group of women's rights activists in a Brooklyn brownstone to one of the largest reproductive healthcare providers in the world today:

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