Once more, careful distinction needs to be made between the use and the
bad effects of the abuse of birth control. That its abuse produces harm
I fully agree--harm to parents, to families, and to the nation. But abuse
is not a just condemnation of legitimate use. Over-eating,
over-drinking, over-smoking, over-sleeping, over-work do not carry
condemnation of eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, work.
But the evils of excessive birth control are very real. There is first
the individual--every woman is better in body and mind for child
bearing--the periodic completion of the maternal cycle brings out the
best, preserves youth and maintains vital contact with life. Maternity
gives to woman her most beautiful attributes. Fancy being mad enough to
suppress it! If one watches the woman with one child and all maternity
finished before thirty, and compare her at forty with the woman of the
same age who has had, say, four children at proper intervals, who
usually has the advantage in preservation of youth and beauty? Not the
former.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that baby after baby every year
or eighteen months wears and often exhausts a woman's strength. The
inference is that the use of birth control is good, its abuse bad.
Next, the children. Is it even necessary to refer to the failure of the
single-child household? Poor little thing! Surrounded by over-anxious
parents, spoilt, no children to play with, bored stiff by adults. And
then, perhaps, illness, and it may be death--and when it is too late to
produce another.
Of the many tragedies I met in the war none exceeded that attaching to
the loss of only children. It often means the end of all things; nothing
to live for--just blank despair.