Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
I did not try to telephone Dr. Rutgers. Instead, though it was not yet
nine o’clock, I hailed a taxi and held out to the driver a slip of paper
on which I had written the street and number. In response to my ring at
the door to which I was delivered, a tiny square window in the upper
part opened mysteriously and a face—wizened, aged, and inquisitive—was
framed in the aperture. It remained while I explained my mission.
Apparently trust was inspired because, my story finished, the door swung
wide and the face, materialized into Dr. Rutgers, ushered me into the
library, where I waited until he came back in his street clothing. Then
we went out to a second breakfast in a near-by café.
The doctor turned out to be a kindly little man, whose wife was now an
invalid. It was hard for him to talk English. Most of the Dutch had four
languages, but only those who had lived in England spoke English well.
The difficulties, however, lessened as we nibbled brioches and sipped
coffee after coffee until noon. Warming to my narrative of the battle in
the United States, he shook his head when he thought of what I might
have to face in the future, and expressed more concern over my
predicament and more heartfelt sympathy with my having had to leave the
children behind than anybody I had yet met. He was the first person to
whom I had been able to overflow about my personal sadness.
On his part Dr. Rutgers described his hardships in keeping the clinics
open and, through the League, preventing adverse legislation.
Neo-Malthusianism had never been popular anywhere, no matter what the
proof in the lessening of human misery and suffering. Dr. Rutgers had
borne alone the brunt of all the criticism directed at his society.
The Rutgers method for establishing new clinics had resulted in a sound
system for dealing with the birth rate. The men and women who acted as
his councilors understood that a rising birth rate, no matter where in
the country, would soon be followed by a high infant mortality rate.
Accordingly, they reported this quickly to the society, which sent a
midwife or practical nurse, trained in the technique standardized by Dr.
Rutgers, into the congested sector to set up a demonstration clinic. She
usually took an apartment with two extra rooms, one for waiting, the
other a modestly equipped office like that of any country midwife.
Her duty was to go into the home where a child had died, inquire into
the cause, and give friendly advice regarding the mother’s own health.
She also encouraged her not to have another baby until the condition of
ignorance, poverty, or disease, whichever it might be, had either been
bettered or eliminated. Whenever four had been born into such a family
this advice was made more emphatic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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