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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Birth Control Review
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Person
Clark, John Proctor
Hirsch, Max
Robinson, William J.
Edgar, J. Clifton
Place
United States
New York, NY
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<div>
<h4>BIRTH CONTROL OR ABORTION?</h4>
<p class="byline">By Margaret Sanger</p>
<p>Family limitation will be practiced. No law has yet been framed that can prevent it. The
church has been powerless and the champions of worn out moral creeds find themselves
trying in vain to force all women to become mothers against their wills.</p>
<p>Abundant evidence of the futility of seeking to impose involuntary motherhood upon women
is found in the size of the families of the rich, of the well-to-do and of the wage
workers of larger earning capacity. The women of these classes long ago refused to be
mere brood animals–-usually they prefer to be voluntary mothers, determining for
themselves the number of children they shall have and when they shall have them. Family
limitation for them is an accomplished fact.</p>
<p>It is also an accomplished fact with many of the wives of the less highly paid workers.
But with the latter, as well as with some of their more fortunate sisters, family
limitation takes a far more drastic and too often a terribly dangerous course. The
awakened woman of today will not bear unwanted children. She will not bear more children
than she can care for. And if she is denied the knowledge of the safe, harmless,
scientific methods of Birth Control, she limits her family by means of abortion.</p>
<p>In the very nature of the case, it is impossible to get accurate figures upon the number
of abortions performed annually in the United States. It is often said,
however, that one in five pregnancies end in abortion. One estimate is that 150,000
occur in the United States each year and that 25,000 women die of the effects of such
operations in every twelve months. Dr. William J.
Robinson asserts that there are 1,000,000 abortions every year in this
country and adds that the estimate is conservative. He quotes Justice John Proctor Clark as saying that there are at
least 100,000 in the same length of time in New York
City alone.</p>
<p>Dr. Max Hirsch, a famous authority quotes an opinion
that there are 2,000,000 abortions in the United States every year!</p>
<p>"<span class="HIRMA">I believe</span>" declares Dr. Hirsch, "<span class="HIRMA">that I may say
without exaggeration that absolutely spontaneous or unprovoked abortions are
extremely rare, that a vast majority--I should estimate it at 80 per cent--have a
criminal origin.</span>"</p>
<p>"<span class="HIRMA">Our examinations have informed us that the largest number of abortions
are performed on married women. This fact brings us to the conclusion that
contraceptive measures among the upper classes and the practice of abortion among
the lower class, are the real means employed to regulate the number of
offspring.</span>"</p>
<p>The question, then, is not whether family limitation should be practised. It is being
practised; it has long been practised and it will always be practised. The question now
is whether it is to be attained by normal, scientific Birth Control methods or by the
abnormal, often dangerous, surgical operation.</p>
<p>That is the question which the church, the state, the moralist and most of all, the woman
herself, must face.</p>
<p>The knowledge of Birth Control methods may for a time be denied to the woman of the
working class, but those who are responsible for denying it to her, and she herself,
should understand clearly the dangers to which she is exposed by the dark age laws which
force her into the hands of the abortionist. To understand the more clearly what these
dangers are, and to realize the more fully how much better it would be to avoid them, it
is first necessary that women should know something of the processes of conception, the
prevention of which frees them of all risk of having to resort to abortion.</p>
<p>In every woman's ovaries there are imbedded millions of ovules or eggs. They are there in
every female at birth and as the girl grows into womanhood, these ovules or eggs develop
also. At a certain period or age, the ripest ovule leaves the nest or ovary and comes on
down one of the tubes into the womb and passes out of the body. When this takes place,
it is said that the girl is at the age of puberty, for the ovule is now ready for
fertilization (or conception) by the male sperm.</p>
<p>About the same time that the ovule is ripening or developing, the womb is preparing to
receive the fertilized ovum by a reinforced blood supply brought to its lining. To this
lining the ovum will cling and gather its nourishment after fertilization takes place.
If fertilization (conception) does not take place, the ovum passes on out of the body
and the uterus throws off its surplus blood supply. This is called the menstrual period
and occurs once a month or about every twenty-eight days.</p>
<p>In the male sexual organs, there are glands (testes) which secrete a fluid called the
semen. In the semen is the lifegiving principle, the sperm.</p>
<p>When intercourse takes place (if no preventative is used) the semen is deposited in the
woman's vagina. The ovule is not in the vagina, but is in the womb, further up, in
safety, or perhaps in the tube on its way to the womb. As steel is attracted to the
magnet, the sperm of the male starts on its way to seek the ovum. Several of these sperm
cells start, but only one enters the ovum and is absorbed into it. This process is
called fertilization, conception or impregnation. If no children are desired, the
meeting of the male sperm and the ovum must be prevented. When scientific means are used
to prevent this meeting, and thereby to limit families, one is said to practise Birth
Control.</p>
<p>But if preventive means are not used and the sperm meets the ovum and development thus
begins, any attempt at removing it or stopping its further growth is called
abortion.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that women are apt to look upon abortion as of little consequence and
to treat it accordingly. An abortion is as important a matter as a confinement and
requires as much attention as the birth of a child at its full term.</p>
<p>"<span class="EDGJC">The immediate dangers of abortion</span>," says Dr. J. Clifton Edgar,
in his book "</p>The Practice of Obstetrics," "<span class="EDGJC">are hemorrhage, retention of an adherent
placenta, sepsis, tetanus, perforation of the uterus. They also cause sterility, anemia, malignant diseases, displacements,
neurosis, and endometriosis.</span>"
<p>In plain, everyday language, in an abortion there is always a very serious risk to the
health and often to the life of the patient.</p>
<p>It is only the women of wealth who can afford to give an abortion proper care and
treatment both at the time of the operation and afterwards. These women often escape any
serious consequences from its occurrence.</p>
<p>The women whose incomes are limited and who must continue at work before they have
recovered from the effects of an abortion are the great army of sufferers. It is among
such that the deaths due to abortion usually ensue. It is these, too, who are most often
forced to resort to such operations.</p>
<p>If death does not result, the woman who has undergone an abortion is not therefore safe.
The womb may not return to its natural size but remain large and heavy, tending to fall
away from its natural position. Abortion often leaves the uterus in a condition to
conceive easily again and unless prevention is strictly followed another pregnancy will
surely occur. Frequent abortions tend to cause barrenness and serious, painful pelvic
ailments. These and other conditions arising from such operations are quite likely to
ruin a woman's general health.</p>
<p>While there are cases where even the law recognizes an abortion as justifiable if
recommended by a physician, I assert that the hundreds of thousands of abortions
performed in America each year are a disgrace to civilization.</p>
<p><span class="italics">I also assert that the responsibility for these abortions and the illness,
misery and deaths that come in their train lies at the door of a government whose
authority has been stretched beyond the limits of the people's intention and which, in
its puritanical blindness, insists upon suffering and death from ignorance, rather than
life and happiness from knowledge and prevention.</span></p>
<p><span class="italics">It needs no assertion of mine to call attention to the grim fact that the
laws prohibiting the imparting of information concerning the preventing of conception
are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year in this country and an untold
amount of sickness and sorrow. The suffering and the death of these women is squarely
upon the heads of the lawmakers and the puritanical, masculine-minded persons, who
insist upon retaining the abominable legal restrictions.</span></p>
<p>Try as they will they cannot escape the truth, nor hide it under the cloak of stupid
hypocrisy. If the laws against imparting knowledge of scientific Birth Control were
repealed, the 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 women who undergo abortions in the United States
each year would escape the agony of the surgeon's instruments and the long trail of
disease, suffering and death which so often follows.</p>
<p>"<span class="HIRMA">He who would combat abortion</span>" says Dr. Hirsch, "<span class="HIRMA">and at
the same time combat contraceptive measures may be likened to the person who would
fight contagious diseases and forbid disinfection. For contraceptive measures are
important weapons in the fight against abortion.</span>
</p>
<p> "<span class="HIRMA">America has a law since 1873 *** which prohibits by criminal statute,
the distribution and regulation of contraceptive measures. It follows, therefore ***
that America stands at the head of all nations in the huge number of
abortions.</span>"</p>
<p>There is the case in a nutshell. Family limitation will always be practised as it is now
being practised–-either by Birth Control or by abortion. We know that. The one means
health and happiness–-a stronger, better race. The other means disease, suffering,
death.</p>
<p>When all is said and done, it is not the advocates of Birth Control, but the bitter,
unthinkable conditions brought about by the blindness of church, state and society that
puts up to all three the question: <span class="italics">Birth Control or Abortion–-which
shall it be?</span>
</p>
</div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Hirsch, Max
Edgar, Clifton J.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Sanger
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1918-12-00
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
msp#232534
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span class="journal"><span class="italics">Birth Control Review</span></span>, Dec. 1918, pp. 3-4
<span class="mf">Margaret Sanger Microfilm Edition, Smith College Collections</span> S70:809
Subject
The topic of the resource
abortion--birth control and
abortion--frequency of
abortion--health risks
abortion--laws and legislation
birth control--access to
birth control--definitions of
birth control--lack of knowledge
birth control laws and legislation--Comstock Laws
family size--class-based
upper classes--and birth control
working classes--and birth control
voluntary motherhood
Title
A name given to the resource
Birth Control or Abortion?
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Published article
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Person
Clark, John Proctor
Hirsch, Max
Robinson, William J.
Place
United States
New York, NY
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<div>
<h4>Prudence or Prudery in Sex Matters</h4>
<p>Family limitation will be practiced. No law has yet been framed that can prevent it. The
church has been powerless and the champions of worn out moral creeds find themselves
trying in vain to force all women to become mothers against their wills. </p>
<p>Abundant evidence of the futility of seeking to impose involuntary motherhood upon women
is found in the size of the families of the rich, of the well-to-do and of the wage
workers of larger earning capacity. The women of these classes long ago refused to be
mere brood animals--usually they prefer to be voluntary mothers, determining for
themselves the number of children they shall have and when they shall have them. Family
limitation for them is an accomplished fact.</p>
<p>It is also an accomplished fact with many of the wives of the less highly paid workers.
But with the latter, as well as with some of their more fortunate sisters, family
limitation takes a far more drastic and too often a terribly dangerous course. The
awakened woman of today will not bear unwanted children. She will not bear more children
that she can care for. And if she is denied the knowledge of the safe, harmless,
scientific methods of Birth Control, she limits her family by means of abortion.</p>
<p>In the very nature of the case, it is impossible to get accurate figures upon the number
of abortions performed annually in the United States. It is often said,
however, that one in five pregnancies end in abortion. One estimate is that 150,000
occur in the United States each year and that 25,000 women die of the effects of such
operations in every twelve months. Dr. William J.
Robinson asserts that there are 1,000,000 abortions every year in this
country and adds that the estimate is conservative. He quotes Justice John Proctor Clark
as saying that there are at least 100,000 in the same length of time inNew York City alone.</p>
<p>Dr. Max Hirsch, a famous authority quotes an opinion
that there are 2,000,000 abortions in the United States every year!</p>
<p>"<span class="HIRMA">I believe</span>," declares Dr. Hirsch, "<span class="HIRMA">that I may say
without exaggeration that absolutely spontaneous or unprovoked abortions are
extremely rare, that a vast majority--I should estimate it at 80 per cent--have a
criminal origin.</span>"</p>
<p>"<span class="HIRMA">Our examinations have informed us that the largest number of abortions
are performed on married women. This fact brings us to the conclusion that
contraceptive measures among the upper classes and the practice of abortion among
the lower class, are the real means employed to regulate the number of
offspring.</span>"</p>
<p>The question, then, is not whether family limitation should be practiced. It is being
practiced; it has long been practiced and it will always be practiced. The question now
is whether it is to be attained by normal, scientific Birth Control methods or by the
abnormal, often dangerous, surgical operation. That is the question which the church,
the state, the moralist, and most of all, the woman herself, must face.</p>
<p>The knowledge of Birth Control methods may for a time be denied to the woman of the
working class, but those who are responsible for denying it to her, and she herself,
should understand clearly the dangers to which she is exposed by the dark age laws which
force her into the hands of the abortionist. </p>
<p>Advocates of scientific Birth Control are sometimes met with the absurd statement that
such methods are injurious to the health of the woman. It is even asserted that they
cause cancer and other disease and that they bring about sterility.</p>
<p>As applied to scientific Birth Control, these statements are both false and silly. In the
light of the best authoritative information of the day, it can be unequivocally set down
that modern Birth Control methods, properly employed, are not only not injurious but are
often positively beneficial to the woman's health. The contrary is maintained for the
most part by those who are mentally honest but uninformed or by such as are altogether
prejudiced.</p>
<p>The clergy, bound to its theological dogmas is usually opposed to Birth Control methods
and is only too ready to accept any bald statement leveled against them. A few
physicians who are uninformed as to modern means of Birth Control, still incline to the
opinion that they are injurious, but these physicians have in mind the earlier, cruder
means of preventing conception.</p>
<p>Some of the persons who maintain that preventative measures are injurious are so ignorant
of the whole subject that they in opposing abortion call it Birth Control. Still others
believe that harmful drugs are given internally as contraceptives. They, of course,
confuse abortives with the means of preventing conception. Anyone who knows anything
about either Birth Control or abortion knows that scientific Birth Control methods would
do away with abortions which occur in appalling numbers in America every year.</p>
(To Be Continued.)
</div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Hirsch, Max
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Sanger
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919-08-23
Description
An account of the resource
<p>This is the first of a series of articles on this subject written by Sanger and others. For the another article by Sanger in this series, see
<span class="article">"Birth Control: Yes or
No?"</span>," Sept. 20, 1919. For a third Sanger article in the series see, Oct. 4,1919.</p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
msp#302881
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span class="journal"><span class="italics">Fairplay</span></span>, Aug. 23, 1919
Subject
The topic of the resource
abortion--birth control and
abortion--frequency of
birth control--class-based
birth control--health benefits and risks
birth control--lack of knowledge of
birth control--opposition to
birth control methods
women and girls--reproductive choices and decisions
Title
A name given to the resource
"Prudence or Prudery in Sex Matters, Part I"
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Published article