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
The first of these was a pamphlet entitled “Moral Physiology,” written
by United States Senator Robert Dale Owen, son of Robert Owen, which was
published in New York City in 1830 and gave a description of the
physical checks made use of in France, where it was the custom to limit
the number of children to the means at the command of the family. This
book was much read and commented favorably upon in America.
So favorably did this publication appeal to the thinking minds of the
time, that Dr. Charles Knowlton, an able Boston physician, on reading
Owen’s pamphlet, was so struck by its importance as a contribution to
the science of hygiene that he brought out a similar work in 1833,
entitled “The Fruits of Philosophy.” His book was addressed to young
married people and gave a popular description of the anatomy of the
organs of reproduction, especially in the female, and a somewhat more
detailed account of the physical checks to prevent conception than had
been given in Owen’s pamphlet.
“The Fruits of Philosophy” circulated unchallenged for more than forty
years, and finally, in 1876, was attacked as an obscene publication
under the new act of Parliament called “Lord Campbell’s Act,” and a
bookseller of Bristol, England, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment
for selling it.
This work would have been suppressed altogether had not Charles
Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant, two ardent defenders of British
liberty, come forward and volunteered to sell it in order to test the
case in the English courts. The trial, as has been described herein
under the title of “Birth Control League of England,” attracted great
attention to this philosophy throughout the world. It is a sad
commentary upon the legislative bodies of this country that up to the
present every attempt by advocates of this principle to discuss this
subject and awaken our people to its needs has been met with prosecution
and jail sentences.
During these last forty years the movement has made rapid progress in
all civilized countries except the United States. In this progressive
matter we find ourselves classed with Russia, Japan, India and China,
where national interest is concerned with quantity of human beings
rather than with quality.
But during the last five years the subject has come forcibly to the
front, mainly through prosecutions. Again a message has gained a hearing
from the dock which it could never have won from the platform.
The people of this country are now awakened to the need of knowledge to
prevent conception. Social workers, nurses, and members of the medical
profession find their work hampered and their activities nullified by
oppressive laws denying the individual the right of health, life and the
pursuit of happiness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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