Remarks to American Women's Association Club

Date

1931-04-13

Source

"Hails Church Move for Birth Control, New York Times, Apr. 14, 1931

Description

Sanger's speech to more than 400 at the American Women's Association Clubhouse was not found, but press coverage provides some excerpts. Henry Pratt Fairchild also spoke at the meeting which was presided over by Ida Haar Timme.

Contributor

New York Times

Identifier

Text

Hails Church Move for Birth Control

Mrs. Sanger Tells Audience It Signalizes the "Biolgical Emancipation" of Women.

The recent tentative approval of birth control by a committee of the Federal Council of Churches marked woman's victory in her fight for "biological emancipation," Margaret Sanger, leader of the birth control movement, told an audience of 400 persons last night at the American Women's Association Clubhouse... The meeting was held under the auspices of the Clinical Research Bureau. Another speaker was Professor Henry Pratt Fairchild, sociologist, of New York University, who declared birth control to be a remedy for war."

I have often felt sad about one aspect of Christianity since it dawned upon me that it had set the clock of women’s progress back for centuries,” Mrs. Sanger said.  "Now with the amend made by the Federal Council of Churches, woman has achieved justice at length through the recognition of birth control as a means of making happier homes and happier marriages. I believe that every woman’s organization in the country should give thanks for the forward stand taken by the council looking toward woman’s freedom and women’s progress."

She went on to assert that the government should  offer a life pension to every feeble-minded person who would consent to be sterilized.

Professor Fairchild urged that human genial laws" be substituted for the  "cruel ruthless laws of nature," so bringing about  "an era of peace more certain than all the disarmament conferences can bring about." Exercise of birth control was the use of "human" rather than "natural" he explained.

"Birth Control," he asserted, "is the very greatest agency for the introduction of world peace."

Mrs. Walter Timme, eastern regional chairman of the Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, of which Mrs. Sanger is the national chairman, presided. The meeting was preceded by a dinner.