Rankin McKinnon was elected President of the Suffragette League in 1915.[2] She earned her law degree from the University of Montana School of Law in 1919.[3] She subsequently became the first Montana-born woman to pass the bar exam in Montana.[4] After earning her degree, she married John W. McKinnon without a proper education on birth control. With McKinnon, they had two children before eventually divorcing.[1] While married, she miscarried and became sterile.[5] After her divorce, she attended a lecture on birth control and reproduction given by Mordecai Ezekiel.[6]
Her sister helped her earn a position with the Resettlement Administration.[7] After meeting Margaret Sanger, she was encouraged to become a field worker in Montana to inform women about birth control.[1] From 1937 until 1946, she travelled across the United States to spread the word of birth control as a member of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau.[8] Rankin McKinnon soon resigned from the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau due to a dislike for new management.[9] She later teamed up with Clarence Gamble and the Pathfinder International Fund.[7] However, due to her brother Wellington's disapproval, she was unable to convince Montana to sell birth control.[1] Gamble offered McKinnon $50 to set up a birth control clinic, which she successfully started, and formed a Planned Parenthood branch in Bali.[6]
She was elected executive director of the Chicago Planned Parenthood chapter in 1947.[10] Under her leadership, she oversaw 10 Planned Parenthood clinics across Chicago.[11] She also earned an honorary degree from the University of Montana in 1974.[12] During that year, Wilma Dykeman published a biography on Rankin McKinnon titled "Too Many People, Too Little Love: Edna Rankin McKinnon: Pioneer for Birth Control."[13]
Rankin McKinnon died on April 5, 1978.[14]
