After ten years of incessant agitation and activity the much-discussed question of birth control has invaded the legislative halls of Albany. A bill intended to amend existing laws so that New York physicians may be authorized to disseminate contraceptive advice has been introduced. There will be a hearing on that matter in the Assembly Chamber on April 10. If enacted, we may hope for the beginning of a new era of social welfare and racial hygiene. But whatever the outcome, this bill means that birth control is no longer looked upon, even in the judicial and legislative field, as a topic "obscene and indecent," worthy only of ribald jest and suggestive leer.
No other great problem affecting the welfare of nation and race has been more misinterpreted and misunderstood, even by Americans who consider themselves well informed. Advocates of this doctrine do not beg for mere assent or approval. They ask for investigation and understanding, as the initial step toward support and adherence to their doctrines.
Much of the opposition to birth control has had its source among clergymen and other professional moralists. This ecclesiastic opposition is amazing in view of the fact that the "only true begetter" of the whole birth control movement, Robert Malthus, was himself a clergyman of the Church of England. He advocated "prudential checks" on the grounds of austere morality. Our clerical opponents also ignore the fact that many of the most noted champions of birth control today are clergymen. The most noteworthy example is that of the distinguished Dean of St. Paul’s, London, William Ralph Inge.
There is a confusion in the public mind concerning the origin of the present movement, which must be distinguished from the so-called Neo-Malthusian movement of Great Britain and the Continent. The Neo-Malthusian League was the direct outcome of the celebrated trial in London in 1877 of Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs.Annie Besant, who had frankly admitted distributing among the English poor thousands upon thousands of copies of the pamphlet of a Boston physician, Dr. Knowlton, entitled “Fruits of Philosophy,” originally published in this country in 1833. The Neo-Malthusian League, sponsored by those valiant pioneers, Charles and George Drysdale and Dr. Alice Vickery, soon spread to all countries of the continent, and its doctrines were put into practice in Holland, where fifty-three birth control clinics, approved by the Dutch Government, have been conducted with great success for forty years.
The birth control movement, which has now absorbed the earlier Neo-Malthusian movement, originated right here in New York just a decade ago. While the Neo-Malthusians based their propaganda on the broad general basis of Malthus’s theory of population, the expression “birth control” was devised in my little paper of advance feminism, The Woman Rebel, as one of the fundamental rights of the emancipation of working women. The response to this idea of birth control was so immediate and so overwhelming that a league was formed--the first birth control league in the world.
With all the flame-like ardor of pioneers we did not at first realize the full scope of this fundamental discovery. At that time I knew nothing of Malthus, nothing of the courageous and desperate battle waged by the Drysdales in England, Rutgers in Holland, of G. Hardy and Paul Robin in France, for this century-old doctrine. I was merely thinking of the poor mothers of congested districts of the East Side who had so poignantly begged me for relief, in order that the children they had already brought into the world might have a chance to grow into strong and stalwart Americans. It was almost impossible to believe that the dissemination of knowledge easily available to the intelligent and thoughtful parents of the well-to-do-classes was actually a criminal act, proscribed not only by State laws but by Federal as well.
My paper was suppressed. I was arrested and indicted by the Federal authorities. But owing to the vigorous protests of the public and an appeal sent by a number of distinguished English writers and thinkers, the case against me was finally abandoned. Meanwhile “birth control” became the slogan of the idea and not only spread through the American press from coast to coast, but immediately gained currency in Great Britain. Succinctly and with telling brevity and precision “birth control” summed up our whole philosophy. Birth control is not contraception indiscriminately and thoughtlessly practiced. It means the release and cultivation of the better racial elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extirpation of defective stocks--those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.
In our efforts to effect the repeal of the existing laws which declare the use of contraceptive methods indecent and obscene, birth control advocated have been forced to battle every inch of the way. To get the matter before the Legislature of New York my path has led completely around the earth. Our effort has been to enlist the support of the best minds of every country, an object we have achieved even beyond our fondest expectations.
The backbone of the birth control movement has been from the time Malthus first published his epoch-making “Principles of Population” essentially Anglo-Saxon. John Stuart Mill, Francis Place, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Huxley and our own Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert G. Ingersoll spoke openly in favor of control of the population. Today such thinkers and writers as H. G. Wells, Harold Cox (editor of The Edinburgh Review), Arnold Bennett, Dean Inge, William Archer, Havelock Ellis, Gilbert Murray, Bertram Russell, John Maynard Keynes (editor of The Nation), and Lord Dawson, one of the King’s physicians, and innumerable others in Great Britain speak openly and valiantly for birth control.
It is not without significance that since the inauguration of our agitation in 1913 there has been an immense recrudescence of interest in the persistent problem of population; and a number of new efforts, notably that of A. M. Carr-Saunders, to reinterpret the thesis so brilliantly advanced by that obscure clergyman, Malthus.
Most gratifying to the battle-scarred propagandist for birth control has been the awakening of the Orient. China and Japan
for ages have been the notoriously overpopulated countries of the earth, the high birth rate, as always, accompanied by a high death rate, a high infant
mortality rate and even acceptance of the widespread practice of infanticide. Famine, pestilence and flood have been the only checks to overpopulation in China,
and these have been regarded even as a blessing by the yellow races. “Yang to meng ping” is a well known exclamation in
China-- “Many men, life cheap!”
Following my sojourn in China last year, the Ladies’ Journal of China, the most influential women’s publication there, devoted a special edition of more than one hundred pages to the problem of birth control. In this paper Tzi Sang wrote: “Since Mrs. Sanger’s visit public opinion has been greatly influenced, and I understand that some educators are planning to propagate the doctrine in the interior so that our women will no longer be mere machines for breeding children. When the majority of our people know the benefits of birth control and believe that it is the remedy for plague, famine and war in China, then we can adopt the method of asking doctors to pass on their knowledge to women poor in health.”
Set Lu, another writer in the same paper, points out that “if we study the actual situation in China we find that unconsciously the Chinese have attempted to practice birth control in a different way. Do we not throw away our babies?” frankly asks this writer of his compatriots. His answer is interesting: “Savages practice infanticide, but civilized people use scientific methods of prevention. Herein lies the difference between a barbarous and a civilized people. No wonder that our civilization fails to make any noticeable advance.”
Both in Japan and China, as a result of my visit, and especially as the effect of the attempt upon the part of the Imperial Japanese Government to suppress birth control and to shut its door in my face, the subject of birth control has aroused the deepest and most widespread interest among all classes. In both these great Oriental empires the roots of a permanent birth control movement have struck deep in popular interest, and undoubtedly will exert a great influence toward bringing down the alarmingly high birth rates to the level of those of Western civilization. The importance, the immediate necessity of an autonomous control of the birth rate by the races of the Orient is by no one more emphatically stated than by that eloquent and picturesque writer and traveler, J. O. P. Bland.
Since the first birth control clinic established in this country was raided by the New York Police in Brownsville, some years ago, and its founders sentenced to jail as petty miscreants, the whole current of opinion has advanced, not merely in this country but throughout the world. The results of the intelligence tests, the menace of indiscriminate immigration, the fertility of the unfit and the increasing burden upon the healthful and vigorous members of American society of the delinquent and dependent classes, together with the growing danger of the abnormal fecundity of the feeble-minded, all emphasize the necessity of clear-sightedness and courageously facing the problem and the possibilities of birth control as a practical and feasible weapon against national and racial decadence.
With the invasion of the New York Legislature exponents of this challenging doctrine may well congratulate themelves that they have won another victory against their opponents. Whatever the outcome of the hearing on April 10, birth control in any event will have compelled serious attention from our legislators. If we can convince the Assemblymen and State Senators that this is a matter which concerns not merely a group of "well-meaning” feminists, but is organically bound up with the biological welfare of the whole community, we shall consider that our efforts have not been entirely in vain.
This is the first of a six-part series. Only five articles have been located. For the second article, see "A Better Race Through Birth Control," Nov. 1923; for the third article see "Woman and Birth Control,", Dec. 1923; for the fifth article see "Birth Control in China and Japan,", Feb. 1924 and for the sixth and last, see "The Birth Control Movement in 1923," Apr. 1924.
No great problem affecting the welfare of nations and races has been so misinterpreted and misunderstood, even by men who consider themselves well informed, as that of population and Birth Control. Advocates of Birth Control do not ask merely for assent and approval. They demand investigation and understanding as the initial steps toward support of and adherence to their doctrine.
Much of the opposition to Birth Control has had its source among clergymen and other professional moralists. This ecclesiastic opposition is the more surprising in view of the fact that the only true begetter of the whole Birth Control movement was Robert Malthus, himself a clergyman of the Church of England. He advocated prudential checks which called for the most austere morality. Our clerical opponents also ignore the fact that many of the most noted champions of Birth Control today are clergymen. The most distinguished example is the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, the Very Reverend William Ralph Inge.
The backbone of the Birth Control movement, from the time that Malthus first published his epoch-making An Essay on Population, has been essentially Anglo-Saxon. John Stuart Mill, Francis Place, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Huxley and our own great men-- Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert G. Ingersoll, all spoke openly in favor of the control of population. Today such thinkers and writers as H. G. Wells, Harold Cox (Editor of the Edinburgh Review) Arnold Bennett, Dean Inge, William Archer, Havelock Ellis, Gilbert Murray, Bertrand Russell, John Maynard Keynes (Editor of the The Nation and Athenaeum,> E. W. McBride, and Lord Dawson (the King’s Physician) and innumerable others in Great Britain speak openly and valiantly for Birth Control.
The present movement in this country must not be confused with the Neo-Malthusian movement in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. In England the Neo-Malthusian League was the direct outcome of the celebrated trial of Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant, who had openly and in the face of the authorities distributed among the English poor thousands upon thousands of copies of pamphlet by a Boston physician, Dr. Knowlton, entitled “The Fruits of Philosophy”--a pamphlet originally published in 1833 in this country. The Neo-Malthusian League, sponsored by those valiant pioneers, Charles and George Drysdale and Dr. Alice Vickery, soon spread its influence to all parts of the Continent. In Holland its doctrines were openly put into practice, and fifty-three Birth Control clinics, approved by the Dutch Government, have been conducted there with great success for forty years.
The Birth Control movement, which has now absorbed the earlier Neo-Malthusian movement, originated in New York, just a decade ago. While the Neo-Malthusians based their propaganda on Malthus’s theory of Population and earnestly discussed the scientific aspects of the question, the slogan “Birth Control” was put forward in my little paper of advanced feminism, Woman Rebel, and was used as the battle cry of fundamental rights in the fight for the emancipation of the working woman. The response was so immediate and overwhelming that a league was formed--the first Birth Control League in the world.
With the flame-like ardor of pioneers we did not at first realize the full scope of our campaign. At that time I knew nothing of Malthus, nothing of the courageous and desperate battle waged by the Drysdales in England, Rutgers in Holland, G. Hardy and Paul Robin in France, for this century-old doctrine. I was merely thinking of the poor mothers of the East side who had so poignantly begged me for relief, in order that the children they already had brought into the world might have a chance to grow into strong and stalwart Americans. It was almost impossible to believe that the dissemination of knowledge easily available to intelligent and thoughtful parents of the well-to-do classes was actually a criminal act, proscribed not only by State laws but by Federal laws as well.
My paper was suppressed. I was arrested and indicted in the Federal court. But, owing to the vigorous protests of the public and to an appeal sent by a number of distinguished English writers and thinkers, the case against me was finally dismissed.
Meanwhile Birth Control, as the slogan of the movement, not only spread through the American press from coast to coast, but immediately gained currency in Great Britain. Succinctly and with telling brevity these two words sum up our whole philosophy. Birth Control does not mean contraception indiscriminately practised. It means the release and cultivation of the better elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks--those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.
Birth Control aims to introduce into the creation of the next generation of American citizens the sound and scientific principles observed by the gardener and the agriculturist. We must cultivate the human garden by proper spacing, by improving the quality of our precious crop of children by methods of intensive cultivation and not by the production of mere numbers. As long as we wilfully, as a nation, waste the most precious resources we have--our child life-- let us hold our tongues about the dangers of Birth Control. The advocates of Birth Control place a higher value on the life of a child than do its opponents. We want every child born in this country to bring with it the heritage of health and fine vitality. This is the true wealth of our United States.
The first Birth Control clinic in this country was established in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1916. It had but a brief existence. It was raided by the police and its founders sentenced to jail as petty miscreants but it is not without significance that, since then, there has been an immense recrudescence of interest in the persistent problem of population, and that a number of new efforts have been made--notably by A. M. Carr-Sanders, to reinterpret the thesis for which so massive a foundation was laid by that obscure clergyman, Thomas Malthus. The whole current of opinion in regard to the question has advanced, not merely in this country and in England, but all over the world. The results of the intelligence tests, the menace of indiscriminate immigration, the fertility of the unfit, and the increasing burden upon the healthful and vigorous members of American society of the delinquent and dependent classes, together with the growing danger of the abnormal fecundity of the feeble-minded, all emphasize the necessity of clear-sightedness and courage in facing the problem, and throw new light on the possibilities of Birth Control as a practical and powerful weapon against national and racial decadence.
We are not, I must repeat, trying to force this doctrine upon the American public. Every day thousands of poor mothers are begging us for help, fully conscious that their sacred duty to the children they have already brought into the world demands that they shall not assume further parental responsibilities which they cannot fulfil. It is in answer to those unfortunate and conscripted mothers that we have banded ourselves together in the American Birth Control League.
(To be continued)This article was reprinted by the American Birth Control League in a flyer with two other newspaper articles as "Real Facts About Birth Control," ca. April 1923 (Margaret Sanger Papers Microfim,Library of Congress LCM 129:580).
After ten years of incessant agitation and activity the much-discussed question of Birth Control has invaded the legislative halls of Albany. A bill intended to amend existing laws so that New York physicians may be authorized to disseminate contraceptive advice has been introduced. There will be a hearing on the matter in the Assembly Chamber on April 10. If enacted, we may hope for the beginning of a new era of social welfare and racial hygiene. But whatever the outcome, this bill means that Birth Control is no longer looked upon, even in the judicial and legislative field, as a topic "obscene and indecent," worthy only of ribald jest and suggestive leer.
No other great problem affecting the welfare of nation and race has been more misinterpreted and misunderstood, even by Americans who consider themselves well informed. Advocates of this doctrine do not beg for mere assent or approval. They ask for investigation and understanding, as the initial step toward support and adherence to their doctrines.
Much of the opposition to Birth Control has had its source among clergymen and other professional moralists. This ecclesiastic opposition is amazing in view of the fact that the "onlie true begetter" of the whole Birth Control movement, Robert Malthus, was himself a clergyman of the Church of England. He advocated " prudential checks" on the grounds of austere morality. Our clerical opponents also ignore the fact that many of the most noted champions of Birth Control today are clergymen. The most noteworthy example is that of the distinguished Dean of St. Paul's, London, William Ralph Inge.
There is a confusion in the public mind concerning the origin of the present movement, which must be distinguished from the so-called Neo-Malthusian movement of Great Britain and the Continent. The Neo-Malthusian League was the direct outcome of the celebrated trial in London in 1877 of Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant, who had frankly admitted distributing among the English poor thousands upon thousands of copies of the pamphlet of a Boston physician, Dr. Knowlton, entitled "Fruits of Philosophy," originally published in this country in 1833. The Neo-Malthusian League, sponsored by those valiant pioneers, Charles and George Drysdale and Dr. Alice Vickery, soon spread to all countries of the Continent, and its doctrines were put into practice in Holland, where fifty-three Birth Control clinics, approved by the Dutch Government, have been conducted with great success for forty years.
The Birth Control movement, which has now absorbed the earlier Neo-Malthusian movement, originated right here in New York just a decade ago. While the Neo-Malthusians based their propaganda on the broad general basis of Malthus's theory of population, the expression "Birth Control" was devised in my little paper of advance feminism, The Woman Rebel, as one of the fundamental rights of the emancipation of working women. The response to this idea of Birth Control was so immediate and so overwhelming that a league was formed--the first Birth Control league in the world.
With all the flame-like ardor of pioneers we did not at first realize the full scope of this fundamental discovery. At that time I knew nothing of Malthus, nothing of the courageous and desperate battle waged by the Drysdales in England, Rutgers in Holland, of G. Hardy and Paul Robin in France, for this century-old doctrine. I was merely thinking of the poor mothers of congested districts of the East Side who had so poignantly begged me for relief, in order that the children they had already brought into the world might have a chance to grow into strong and stalwart Americans. It was almost impossible to believe that the dissemination of knowledge easily available to the intelligent and thoughtful parents of the well-to-do classes was actually a criminal act, proscribed not only by State laws but by Federal as well.
My paper was suppressed. I was arrested and indicted by the Federal authorities. But owing to the vigorous protests of the public and an appeal sent by a number of distinguished English writers and thinkers, the case against me was finally abandoned. Meanwhile "Birth Control" became the slogan of the idea and not only spread through the American press from coast to coast, but immediately gained currency in Great Britain. Succinctly and with telling brevity and precision "Birth Control" summed up our whole philosophy. Birth Control is not contraception indiscriminately and thoughtlessly practiced. It means the release and cultivation of the better racial elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extirpation of defective stocks--those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.
In our efforts to effect the repeal of the existing laws which declare the use of contraceptive methods indecent and obscene, Birth Control advocates have been forced to battle every inch of the way. To get the matter before the Legislature of New York my path has led completely around the earth. Our effort has been to enlist the support of the best minds of every country, an object we have achieved even beyond our fondest expectations.
The backbone of the Birth Control movement has been from the time Malthus first published his epoch-making "An Essay on the Principle of Population">Principles of Population" essentially Anglo-Saxon. John Stuart Mill, Francis Place, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Huxley and our own Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert G. Ingersoll spoke openly in favor of control of the population. Today such thinkers and writers as H. G. Wells, Harold Cox (editor of The Edinburgh Review), Arnold Bennett, Dean Inge, William Archer, Havelock Ellis, Gilbert Murray, Bertrand Russell, John Maynard Keynes (editor of The Nation, and Lord Dawson, one of the King's physicians, and innumerable others in Great Britain speak openly and valiantly for Birth Control.
It is not without significance that since the inauguration of our agitation in 1913 there has been an immense recrudescence of interest in the persistent problem of population; and a number of new efforts, notably that of A. M. Carr-Saunders, to reinterpret the thesis so brilliantly advanced by that obscure clergyman, Malthus.
Most gratifying to the battle-scarred propagandist for Birth Control has been the awakening of the Orient. China and Japan for ages have been the notoriously overpopulated countries of the earth, the high birth rate, as always, accompanied by a high death rate, a high infant mortality rate and even acceptance of the widespread practice of infanticide. Famine, pestilence and flood have been the only checks to overpopulation in China, and these have been regarded even as a blessing by the yellow races. "Yang to meng ping" is a well-known exclamation in China--"Many men, life cheap!"
Following my sojourn in China last year, the Ladies' Journal of China, the most influential women's publication there, devoted a special edition of more than one hundred pages to the problem of Birth Control. In this paper Tzi Sang wrote: " Since Mrs. Sanger's visit, public opinion has been greatly influenced, and I understand that some educators are planning to propagate the doctrine in the interior so that our women will no longer be mere machines for breeding children. When the majority of our people know the benefits of Birth Control and believe that it is the remedy for plague, famine and war in China, then we can adopt the method of asking doctors to pass on their knowledge to women poor in health."
Set Lu, another writer in the same paper, points out that "If we study the actual situation in China we find that unconsciously the Chinese have attempted to practice Birth Control in a different way. Do we not throw away our babies?" frankly asks this writer of his compatriots. His answer is interesting: "Savages practice infanticide, but civilized people use scientific methods of prevention. Herein lies the difference between a barbarous and a civilized people. No wonder that our civilization fails to make any noticeable advance."
Both in Japan and China, as a result of my visit, and especially as the effect of the attempt upon the part of the Imperial Japanese Government to suppress Birth Control and to shut its door in my face, the subject of birth control has aroused the deepest and most widespread interest among all classes. In both these great Oriental empires the roots of a permanent Birth Control movement have struck deep in popular interest, and undoubtedly will exert a great influence toward bringing down the alarmingly high birth rates to the level of those of Western civilization. The importance, the immediate necessity of an autonomous control of the birth rate by the races of the Orient is by no one more emphatically stated than by that eloquent and picturesque writer and traveler, J. O. P. Bland.
Since the first Birth Control clinic established in this country was raided by the New York police in Brownsville some years ago, and its founders sentenced to jail as petty miscreants, the whole current of opinion has advanced, not merely in this country but throughout the world. The results of the intelligence tests, the menace of indiscriminate immigration, the fertility of the unfit and the increasing burden upon the healthful and vigorous members of American society of the delinquent and dependent classes, together with the growing danger of the abnormal fecundity of the feeble-minded, all emphasize the necessity of clear-sightedness and courageously facing the problem and the possibilities of Birth Control as a practical and feasible weapon against national and racial decadence.
With the invasion of the New York Legislature exponents of this challenging doctrine may well congratulate themselves that they have won another victory against their opponents. Whatever the outcome of the hearing on April 10, Birth Control in any event will have compelled serious attention from our legislators. If we can convince the Assemblymen and State Senators that this is a matter which concerns not merely a group of "well-meaning" feminists, but is organically bound up with the biological welfare of the whole community, we shall consider that our efforts have not been entirely in vain.
Handwritten additions and corrctions by Sanger.
]]>Sanger spoke at a Symposium on Birth Control, held at the Hotel Brevoort in New York City, sponsored by the Eastern Medical Society. Other participants were Robert Latou Dickinson, Hannah Mayer Stone, Stuart Mudd, A. J. Romney, A. A. Brill, and S. Adolphus Knopf.
Handwritten additions and corrctions by Sanger.
1929
Dr. Cohen Pres of Eastern Medical Society has honored me by asking me to speak here tonight. He has suggested that I give to give you a brief history of the Birth Control Movement in America. It is an interesting fact, of which few people are aware, that the person who first gave the greatest impetus and the most important contribution to the Birth Control Movement both in England and America was not only an American, but a physician. Dr. Charles Knowlton of Boston, Mass. wrote his “Fruits of Philosophy” in 1832, almost 100 years ago. This booklet circulated the globe English-speaking worldfor 40 years before it challenged conventional thought and puritanical bigotry. Finally, in 1878, in Bristol, England, an arrest was made and the contents of the booklet were decreed obscene. Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh refused to accept the magistrate’s verdict in the case. and In the name of freedom of the press they took the case to a higher court and won a victory that enabled the English Birth Control Movement to advance and expand without legal obstruction until the present day.
When I came upon the horizon of the Birth Control Movement in 1914, I knew nothing of Knowlton or of the fight that Besant and Bradlaugh had made. I thought I had made discovery, childhood influence.
As a trained nurse working for many years in and around this city among all classes of people, I was constantly requested by women to tell them what could be done to avoid further and undesired pregnancies. Although a mother of three children myself, I had the usual negative attitude in this matter, until I was finally brought face to face with the question-- When A woman whom the doctor and I had brought out of the Valley of the Shadow, asked us to tell her what she could do to prevent getting into a pregnant condition again. The doctor joked and ironically suggested that her husband "sleep on the roof". She turned to me and pleaded, "you are a woman, you understand, you will tell me won’t you”? But I too turned away and left her to her fate.
Three months later I was called to take this case again. This feeble and distressed and agonized woman had turned to someone else to help her terminate her pregnancy. It was fatal. I arrived too late.
I saw the three little children bundled off by kindly social workers to an orphan’s home. I saw the husband, bewildered and stunned by this tragic happening, made homeless and helpless in his plight.
The panorama of one social our social life seemed to pass before my eyes. and I saw as never before the vast network of philanthropic institutions erected for the maintenance and upkeep of human beings, whose fate was intimately bound up with ignorance of the knowledge of contraception.
I returned to my home that hot midnight in July and as I looked out over the housetops of this city and watched the dawn come up I knew a new day was dawning for me as well as for all womankind.
I announced to my family that I was through with all palliative work. I would nurse no more--I would never take another case until knowledge to prevent conception was available and accessible to the mothers of the poor. But "fools go where angels fear to read." I had no knowledge of the task I ahd set myself to do. I first started out to invade search the medical libraries for practical information. It was a shock and surprise to find almost nothing available for practical purposes. I went to Boston and then to Washington, D.C., even to the Congressional library. I employed French & German translators to help me, but after an almost fruitless search of several months I decided to go to France and there I got Knowlton's Pamphlets & information sufficiently practical to help me start a challenge to Sec 211 of the Federal law.
name birth control not limitation
It was just about 100 years before this, when that the possibilities of a controlled population first seized the minds and imaginations of the Anglo-Saxon world. that Pioneers like John Stuart Mill and Francis Place scattered millions thousands of leaflets from the housetops of tenements to the tenants below. These leaflets contained information how and why the size of the family could be controlled. The leaflet was known as the “Diabolical Handbill.”
These pioneers, like Besant and Bradlaugh half a century later,believed in the magic of the printed word and thought that all that was necessary was to distribute the printed leaflets to the masses and the results would be achieved.
Experience is a better wise teacher. I too believed that the working men and women should have pamphlets made available for their demand. I decided to challenge the Federal law which had been instigated by Anthony Comstock forty years before. It seemed to me it was entirely a question of the printed word and of freedom of the press. That was during 1912 to 1914-- (unclear). Then I went to Holland in 1915 and studied the technique of contraception under Dr. Rutgers of the Hague. I had spent a year in London in study under the guidance and direction of that wise and venerable man Havelock Ellis.
After Holland--I became convinced that leaflets, pamphlets, books were not the medium through which overburdened mothers could be educated in Birth Control. That only by scientific instruction received from competent physicians and nurses in clinics established for that purpose and for that purpose alone could the best results be achieved. When in 1916 after my involuntary exile I returned to this country after my involuntary exile the idea of clinics was central in my mind. It seemed to me that here at last was the practical solution to the problem viz. contraceptive instruction to be given by the medical profession in their public or private practice and as well as clinics for the poor whose social or economic status would not bring them into the realm of the profession otherwise.
I did not realize the gigantic obstacles to overcome before that idea could be converted into reality. Nevertheless, I plunged into activity. My free speech friends refused to help me further because I had now insisted that the medical profession must give thisadvice-- That we must win their support, ask that they take over the entire responsibilities of woman’s reproductive problems.
I abandoned the Federal fight after my case was dismissed. (having been indicted on nine charges) and established a clinic in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. This was for the purpose of testing the New York State law Section 1142. I knew that Section 1145 existed but no physician could be found who cared to test the validity of the law. In the meantime and before I had reached the decision of opening the Brownsville clinic--I, together with two social workers, took two women, one suffering from tuberculosis, and the other from syphilis, to every hospital in New York and Brooklyn to ask for contraceptive advice. In every instance the most courteous consideration was given us, offers made to treat the ailments of the both women, but in all but one case, every hospital refused to give instruction to prevent conception. That one agreed only because the social worker was known to the doctors in charge. (loose Charter)
The average physician did not interpret Section 1145 as his right to give such advice, especially in his public practice. Because of this confusion refusal by Hospitals, I opened the Brownsville clinic and within ten days no less than 488 mothers crowded into our limited quarters. Then the police descended upon us closed our precious clinic, and called it a “public nuisance.” In Holland it was called a public utility. I was convicted and carried the case to the Court of Appeals. In 1918 a decision was handed down to us, justifying my conviction, but stating that “physicians lawfully practicing are permitted to give contraceptive advice for the cure or prevention of disease.” This was our first technical victory and the first legal interpretation of the law, which cleared the atmosphere for the medical profession and for us all. The first National Conference was held in New York in 1921. It was then t hat the ruits of the preceding years matured, and be it ever to the honor of the scientists, for biologists, economists that they had thecourage and fearlessness to who stand staunchly behind us through all the ordeals from of the Town Hall episode to the present day.
Nevertheless the situation presented itself that while the physicians now had the power to give contraceptive advice they were very confused and skeptical as to the efficiency of such methods as were available and known. No literature, few devices available. Federal law. Europe. It was important to collect and correlate the facts as to methods now in use.
In 1923 a Research Bureau was established in [illegible] with a physician in charge. We have now investigated over 13000 cases and an analysis of their histories is being made. We have seven physicians on our staff, 5 nurses as well as a social worker and an assistant to do follow-up work when necessary.
Dr. Cooper’s book--published & available gone into 10,000 for profession. 26 clinics in U.S.A.
$150,000 lately bequeathed to Los Angeles clinic.
500 physicians visited New York clinic. 10,000 expressed interest & solicited information
Medical Societies and Universities discussing subject.
4 supply houses.
The Birth Control clinic does not aim to compete with other social agencies. It does not act as a substitute, but it must precede almost every social program and must serve it as a base. Birth Control is not merely a medical question. It is a fundamental human need effecting every adult life. It affects also the lives of all children born in America. It affects our and the future of civilization. But perhaps more important of all it is fundamentally affects the a woman especially poor women. And because of the my knowledge of a woman's needds, as a woman & a mother I entered the movement as a representative and protagonist of the overburdened women of this country. It is as a suppliant representative of womanhood as well as of motherhood that I appeal to you, the members of the most understanding and philanthropic profession of the world to aid us in our battle for a conscious and voluntary motherhood and the creation of a new emancipated race of thoroughbred children.
Margaret Sanger delivered speech at a dinner promoting the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in New York's Plaza Hotel. Other speakers were: Owen Lovejoy, Henry Pratt Fairchild, Frank Hankins and Hannah Stone. For Sanger's introductions see Hankins, Lovejoy and Fairchild. Handwritten additions were made by Sanger. For an early draft see the Library of Congreee micofilm, LCM 130:479.
We are here tonight to celebrate a birthday. The Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau has just entered the seventh year of its existence. In the six years of its existence the Research Bureau commonly called the Birth Control Clinic--has demonstrated the success of a new way of solving old problems.
Just about one hundred years ago, when the possibilities of the control of population first seized the minds and the imagination of the Anglo-Saxon world, pioneers like Francis Place and John Stuart Mill, thought that all that was necessary was to scatter millions of leaflets to the masses telling them why and how they could prevent large families. A century ago men put great faith in the printed word. They scattered leaflets from the roofs of tenements and defied arrest for scattering broadcast "diabolical handbills."
Fifteen years ago, when the idea of Birth Control captured my imagination I went through the same experience and wrote, printed and disseminated leaflets and booklets. I was stopped by the Post Office Authorities and indicted for breaking a federal statute enacted under the reign of St. Anthony Comstock.
But experience is a bitter teacher. The more you go through, the less you believe in the miracle of printed words to effect the salvation of the lives of women and children.
In 1915 I visited Holland, and spent three months studying the actual technique of contraception. I became convinced that that overburdened women could be educated in Birth Control only by scientific instruction received from competent physicians and nurses in clinics established for that purpose and that purpose alone.
When I returned to this country, that idea was the central one in my mind. I did not realize the gigantic obstacles to overcome before that idea could be converted in reality. I plunged into activity, established a clinic in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. We operated for ten days and no less than four hundred and eighty eight mothers crowded into our limited quarters. Then the police descended upon us and called us a "public nuisance."
I carried this fight to the Supreme Court. In a decision handed down by the New York Court of Appeals permitted lawfully practising physicians to give contraceptive advice "for the cure of prevention of disease." This technical victory was won in 1918. With the aid of a woman physician I ventured on my own responsibility to establish a research bureau as a preliminary toward a clinic. In the meantime a small group of pioneers was working incessantly toward converting unintelligent public opinion to the legitimacy of the idea of Birth Control.
It was not until 1923--just six years ago--that I succeeded in finding anyone with sufficient faith and courage to support the research bureau with financial backing. Now Ill tell you an interesting little secret. It was not an American, but a gentleman in England who advanced the first five thousand dollars to pay the doctor's salary. That was all I needed. I found a competent physician. The research bureau was opened.
From that small beginning, the bureau has grown slowly, steadily and surely. Today we have seven women physicians on our medical staff, five trained nurses and two social workers.
We have investigated thirteen thousand cases. From that vast number we have the full records of ten thousand women who came to the bureau for advice and instruction as permitted under the law, "for the cure of prevention of disease." Hundreds of overburdened mothers who appeal to us are turned away because despite their misery and poverty do not come under this classification.
Since my first clinic was destroyed by the New York police, the idea has grown and matured not only in this country but in Great Britain as well. There are now twenty-six similar establishments in this country and about twenty in England. Our aim here is to develop the Clinical Research Bureau as a model of all other similar agencies in the United States. In this aim we are succeeding. Physicians from all civilized countries of the world come to us to learn the techniques of scientific contraception. We are aiming to perfect the bureau so that its methods and its administrations shall be above criticism.