Introduction of Ira Wile at the Civic Club

Date

1929-06-06

Source

Margaret Sanger Microfilm Edition, Smith College Collections S71:165

Description

Sanger delivered this introduction at a the Civic Club in New York City, attended by the staff of the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. For another draft see Margaret Sanger Microfilm, Smith College Collections, S71:165

Identifier

Text

It is my great pleasure & privilege to welcome you all here tonight.

My pleasure to greet those old friends--tried & true who have stood by the ship during these years long, lean years of struggle & hardship.

It is my privilege to welcome you on this occasion when we shall pay honor & tribute to those valiant workers who have fought on many fronts, against ignorance & suppression.

But especially are we here to rejoice in the most recent & far reaching victory. This victory was gained for us through the valiant efforts of these intrepid supporters Dr. Hannah Stone & Morris Ernst.

Victory in the Moscowitz decision confirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals.

The era of clearing away the legal rubbish of obscenity from the path of the Medical profession is now brought to a close.

To have classed a subject like Bc with obscenity in our laws has caused prodigious suffering to millions of women--to countless men & children as well.

These laws have never conferred upon our civilization one iota of benefit or been the means of helping us as a nation progress.

These laws represent a debt loss to the credit side of human happiness.

The ignorance, passion & foundation which gave rise to them have proven to be an unmitigated & irredeemable evil.

Because they have planted in the minds of millions, the seeds of a fake & harmful belief that Bc is the same as abortion.

Bc is obscene, pornographic & indecent.

It has taken many thousands of us over twenty years of time energy & devotion to offset & undo that evil & to shake these laws apart. To pay honor & tribute to those who are directly responsible for bringing about this separation in our laws we are gathered together tonight.

We have the good fortune to have one of our earliest pioneers with us tonight who has graciously consented to be the Toastmaster of this momentous occasion. I am glad & proud to present to you all of these staunch friends of our cause.

Among whom there is none more consistent, more forceful, more courageous, more contemptuous of idle flattery, more respectful of sincere effort than the man who I take pleasure in presenting to you.

Dr. I. Wile.

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