The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts — John Shaqi
The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of FactsSanger, Margaret
Science
The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control; Eugenics
In that enlightened country, Holland, the teaching by the medical
profession of the most hygienic methods of birth limitation has enabled
the poor to have small families which they could raise to be physically
and morally better equipped than formerly, and what is most interesting
to observe is that, whether as a result of this or for some other
reason, the families among the well-to-do are not nearly as small as in
other countries.—_Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, in The Survey for November,
1916._
GERMANY
Germany was the next to follow, in 1889, when Herr Max Hausmeister and
Herr Karl Lotter founded the Sozial Harmonische Verein, with its paper
_Die Sozial Harmonie_. Like the English League, this society has
confined its teachings to the theoretical and economic aspects of the
subject, in which it has especially distinguished itself. In Germany all
such doctrines are of course anathema, but the enormous decline in the
birth-rate in several towns testifies to the refusal of the German
people to be hectored into misery. All the signs point at present to an
extraordinary ferment of new ideas in Germany, and a large number of
other movements are more or less openly Neo-Malthusian.—From _The
Malthusian_ (London), January, 1909.
The German Sozial Harmonische Verein, founded in 1889, by Herr Max
Hausmeister, has continued its quiet, but effective, work, and its
periodical, _Die Sozial Harmonie_, has contained many articles of great
economic value. A remarkable feature in Germany, however, has been the
rapid rise of the Mutterschutz Society, under the able presidency of Dr.
Helene Stocker, a society which aims at obtaining greater security and
freedom for married and unmarried mothers, and at securing better
conditions for the rearing of their offspring. Neo-Malthusianism (Birth
Control) is becoming an important feature of this work, and is also
dealt with in the _Zeitschrift fur Sexual-wissenschaft_, a scientific
journal devoted to sex matters. The birth-rate of Prussia has seen one
of the most rapid declines, from 36.2 in 1901 to 33.7 in 1906, and 33.0
in 1907; while the death-rates for the same years have been 20.5, 17.9,
and 17.8, and the infantile mortalities 200, 177, and 168 respectively.
The birth-rate of Berlin in 1907 was 24.3, or below that of London,
26.8.—From _The Malthusian_ (London) for July 15th, 1909.
FRANCE
France differs from all other countries in having realized the
individual advantages of the practice of birth control long before any
other country in Europe. It is said that the sale of the lands
(forfeited by the Emigrés or confiscated by the Commune after the
Revolution) to the people, together with the law of equal inheritance in
accordance with the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
adopted for their guidance formed the chief incentive to restriction of
the numbers of the family.
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