In getting at an answer to the question as to what sort of laws are really wanted, it clears the air considerably to get rid of this point about the distinction between a law which prohibits an act and a law which prohibits _information about an act which in itself is perfectly lawful_. The latter is the sort of law we now have, and it is not good law either for those who believe in the control of conception or for those who do not. Both groups should join to repeal it. And then those who wish to have their belief that birth control is wrong incorporated into the law of the land would have an open field in which to make the effort. That they would fail is a foregone conclusion, and they know it of course, which no doubt accounts for their rash insistence on the retention of the present law. The next point to eliminate is that in regard to the application of the present law to the _one method_ of birth control which is sanctioned by the Catholics and the few others who deem the utilization of scientific knowledge an affront to God or nature, namely, abstinence from sex relations. The writer has a letter from Rev. John A. Ryan, Director of the National Catholic Welfare Council in which he says, “There is no question of the lawfulness of birth restriction through abstinence from the relations which result in conception.” This assertion has been repeatedly made by other opponents, but that it is a mistaken assertion was pointed out by Congressman Vaile and by Prof. Roswell Johnson at the Hearings on the Cummins-Vaile Bill. Mr. Vaile said: “If abstinence from the sexual relation were practiced, either spouse could get a divorce.” Abstinence itself is not sanctioned by law. According to common law precedent, the wife gives her “services” to her husband in exchange for her “necessaries.” “Services” are interpreted to mean household services and “consortium,” or sex-relations. “Necessaries” are interpreted to mean food, clothes and shelter. The law does not sanction a wife’s withholding her “services,” either household or sexual. If she does, it is deemed desertion, and in many States desertion is a ground for divorce. Thus it seems that abstinence is not only illegal, because it is a method of birth control, the giving of information about which is prohibited by law, but it is also illegal because it is withholding the “services” which a wife is by law bound to give in return for her “necessaries.” In other words, so far as the law is concerned, there is no room for abstinence. It follows therefore that the only sort of family which is _legally_ approved in these United States is that in which there are as many children as it is physically possible for the parents to produce. This legal situation constitutes a downright poser for the so-called “purists” who advocate the abstinence of marital sex relations except for procreation. For abstinence is one method of birth-control. It certainly prevents conception.