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For other articles in the Britannica Book of the Year series, "Birth Control," 1946-1958, see Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Collected Documents Series: 1944; 1946; 1947; 1949; 1950; 1952; 1953; 1955; 1956; 1957; and 1958.
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Birth Control.
During 1951 the Planned Parenthood Federation of America appointed William Vogt, conservationist and ecologist, as its national director. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India during the year declared that birth control was essential to the national well-being of his country. His government implemented this policy by requesting assistance from the World Health Organization of the United Nations in initiating a population control program. Abraham Stone, federation vice-president, was designated to make a pilot project in India under W.H.O. auspices and Indian government sponsorship. He worked through local health centres, with control groups of illiterates as well as educated Indians who were taught family control methods requiring no artificial appliances.
The third meeting of the International Committee on Planned Parenthood took place in London, Eng., to plan a world conference on planned parenthood. Lady Rama Rau, founder and president of the Indian Family Planning Association, invited the committee to hold its meeting in India in 1952 under the association’s sponsorship, to facilitate the attendance of far easterners concerned with their countries’ pressing population problems.
Awards.–-
The seventh annual Albert D. and Mary Lasker Foundation Awards in Planned Parenthood went to two authorities on world population problems. They were William Vogt and Guy Irving Burch. Vogt was cited for "his investigations in the field of conservation and his achievement in bringing world population problems home to a vast number of people." Burch, founder and director of the Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C., and coathor of Human Breeding and Survival, was recognized posthumously because "perhaps more than any other individual he was responsible for today’s awareness of the population problem and the need for positive action to resolve it.".
Research.–-
One of the serious gaps in the effort of make planned parenthood availale to families everywhere had been the lack of a simple, low-cost contraceptive that could be safely used by illiterate, poverty-stricken mothers in overcrowded parts of the world. In an effort to co-ordinate and promote the research required to discover such a contraceptive, the federation established the Robert L. Dickinson Research Memorial in 1951. The memorial, which was sponsoring basic research in the almost unexplored field of human reproduction, was established as the federation’s tribute to Dickinson, distinguished medical birth control pioneer. Four research projects were sponsored during the year by Dickinson memorial grants, as approved by the federation’s medical committee and the advisory committee of the memorial.
Clinical and laboratory research in contraception and other phases of human fertility were also carried on during the year at the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in New York city.
The Planned Parenthood federation was in 1951 the national agency and clearinghouse for 12 state leagues and 100 local committees. Birth control clinics numbered 517. These services were in 274 public health departments, 48 hospitals, and 173 extramural clinics, and there were 22 referral services. The seven states which included birth control in their public health programs were: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The known infertility clinics in the country were 66 of which 13 were under Planned Parenthood federation auspices.