The student of the progress of human affairs, or even the average person
whose knowledge of the doings of mankind is derived from a hasty and
casual reading of the daily newspapers and the popular magazines, cannot
plead ignorance of the growing interest in the general subject which is
embraced within the content of the term "Birth Control."
But while the general meaning of the term is at least vaguely grasped by
the average member of the human crowd--the individual to whom we refer
as "the man on the street"--we find a startling condition of mental
confusion and often positive misconception concerning the essence and
spirit of the general idea expressed by the term in question.
While the fact is a reflection upon the average intelligence of the
general public, it must be admitted that to the average person, or "the
man on the street," Birth Control means simply the teaching and practice
of certain methods whereby men and women may indulge their sexual
appetites, in or out of marriage, without incurring the liability or
risk of conception and child-bearing. The average person does not stop
to consider that such teachings and practices do not constitute "Birth
Control" at all, but are, rather, merely the theory and practice of
Birth Prevention, desirable only to those who seek sexual indulgences
without being called upon to shoulder the responsibilities attached by
Nature to the physical sexual union of men and women.
The term "CONTROL" does not mean "prohibition," or "prevention"; but, on
the contrary, means "governing, regulating, or managing influence."
Birth Control, in the true meaning of the term, does not mean the
prevention or prohibition of the birth of children, but rather the
encouragement of the birth of children under the best possible
conditions and the discouragement of the birth of children under
improper or unfavorable conditions.
Birth Control, in the true meaning of the term, does not mean theories
and practices which would tend to reduce the population of the civilized
countries of the world, but rather theories and practice which would
inevitably result in the production of an adequate ratio of increase in
the population of such countries, not only by reason of a normal
birth-rate, but also by reason of a diminishing death-rate among
infants--by the production of healthier children, accompanied by the
raising of the standard of the average child born in such countries.
Birth Control, in the true meaning of the term, therefore, is seen to
consist not of the PROHIBITION or PREVENTION of human offspring, but
rather of the GOVERNING, REGULATING, AND MANAGING of the production of
human offspring, under the inspiration of the highest ideals and under
the direction of the highest reason, for the purpose of the advancement
and welfare of the race and that of the individuals composing the race.
Instead of being an anti-social and anti-moral propaganda, Birth Control
when rightly understood is perceived to be in accordance with the
highest social aims and aspirations, and in accordance with the highest
and purest morality of the race.
Much of the opposition toward the general movement of Birth Control
which has been manifested by many well-meaning, though misinformed,
persons, has arisen by reason of the erroneous conception and
understanding of the term itself, and of misleading information
concerning the true nature of the best teachings on the subject. This
prejudice has been heightened by certain zealous but ill-balanced
advocates of the general movement who have overemphasized the incidental
feature of the limitation of offspring under certain conditions, and who
have appealed to the attention and interest merely of those who wished
to escape the responsibilities of parenthood. This has caused much
sorrow and distress to the many persons who have the highest ideals and
results in view, and who deplore this unbalanced propaganda under the
name, and apparently under the cloak of the general movement. Such
persons have felt inclined to cry aloud "Good Lord, deliver us from our
so-called friends!"
One of the most distressing features of the popular prejudice against
Birth Control, arising from a total misconception of the subject, has
been the widely spread and popularly accepted notion that Birth Control
is practically analogous to abortion--or, at the best, but a more
refined and less repulsive and less dangerous form of abortion. In view
of the fact that one of the important results sought to be obtained by a
scientific knowledge of Birth Control actually is the prevention and
avoidance of the crime of abortion which has wrought such terrible havoc
among the women of civilized countries, it is most distressing and
discouraging to the conscientious and high-minded advocates of Birth
Control to have it said and believed that their teachings encourage and
justify abortion.
A reference to any standard dictionary or textbook will reveal the fact
that "Abortion" means: "the premature expulsion of the human embryo or
foetus; miscarriage voluntarily induced or produced," etc. It is seen at
a glance that the essence and meaning of abortion consists in the
destruction of the human embryo which has resulted from conception. The
embryo human child must already exist in its elemental form, before it
can be destroyed by abortion. Therefore, if no such embryo form exists,
it cannot be destroyed, and therefore there can be no abortion in such a
case. And, it may positively be stated, no true advocate of Birth
Control can possibly justify, much less advocate, the destruction of the
human embryo or foetus, which act constitutes abortion. The difference
between true Birth Control teachings and methods, and that of the
advocates of abortion, is as great as the difference between the two
poles. Instead of the two being identical or similar, they are
diametrically opposed one to the other--they are logical "opposites,"
each the antithesis of the other.
Even in those forms or phases of the Birth Control propaganda in which
the use of "contraceptives," or "preventatives" is considered justified
in certain cases--and these forms and phases are far from being the most
important, as all students of the subject know--even in these
exceptional forms and phases of the general subject the idea of abortion
is combatted, and never justified or encouraged. A "contraceptive"
agency merely tends to prevent or obviate undesirable conception; it
never acts to destroy the result of previous and accomplished
conception. A "contraceptive" merely prevents the union of the male and
female elements of reproduction, and consequently the process from which
evolves the foetus or embryo. A leading medical authority has said
regarding this distinction: "In inducing abortion, one destroys
something already formed--a foetus or an embryo, a fertilized ovum, a
potential human being. In prevention, however, one merely prevents
chemically or mechanically the spermatozoa from coming in contact with
the ovum. There is no greater sin or crime in this than there is in
simple abstinence, in refraining from sexual intercourse."
What then must we say when we consider the higher and more advanced
forms and phases of Birth Control, those phases and forms which may be
said to be mental or emotional "contraceptives," rather than physical?
Surely these cannot be considered as identical with or similar to
abortion. And when we consider those phases and forms of Birth Control
which are concerned with Pre-Natal Culture--the culture of the child
before its birth--can one, even though he be intensely prejudiced
against Birth Control, assert that there is to be found here anything
which in any way whatsoever can be considered as relating to the theory
or practice of abortion? And what must we say of the still higher phases
in which the teachings are concerned with the mental and physical
preparation of the parents prior to the conception of the child, to the
end that the child may have the best possible physiological and
psychological basis for its future well-being? Is not this the very
antithesis and opposite of all that concerns abortion or abortive
methods?
The trouble about all great movements designed for the benefit of the
human race is that at the beginning there is attracted to the movement,
by reason of its novelty and "newness," certain elements which seize
upon certain incidental features of the general idea, make them their
own while excluding or ignoring the more important things, and then
exploit these incidental features in a sensational way, thereby
attracting public attention and gaining much undesirable notoriety, and
as a consequence bringing discredit and disfavor, prejudice and
misunderstanding, to the general movement.
Birth Control has passed through this apparently inevitable experience,
and has suffered greatly thereby. But the Light is being thrown on the
Dark Places, and the more intelligent portion of the public is beginning
to realize that there is another side to the shield of Birth Control.
And, as a consequence, much of the original prejudice is disappearing,
and a new understanding of the subject is arising in the minds of many
of the best individuals of the race. It is the purpose of this book to
help to dispel the ignorance and misconception concerning this great
subject of Birth Control, and to aid in presenting the higher and nobler
aspects of the general movement to the attention of those who are
concerned with the advance and progress of the race as a whole, and of
the individual members thereof.
The student of the subject of Birth Control will fall into grievous
error if he begins his consideration of the subject under the impression
that the questions concerned therein are new to the world of living
things. If the process of Birth Control were something which had
suddenly sprung into existence in the consciousness of man, without
having an antecedent activity in the history of the race, and of living
creatures in general, we might well hesitate to go further in the matter
without the most serious and prolonged consideration of the entire
principle by the careful thought of the wisest of the race. But while
such consideration is advisable, as in the case of any and all important
problems presenting themselves for solution and judgment, it is found
that those so considering the subject have a sound and firm foundation
upon which to base their thought and to test their conclusions.
As many thoughtful students of the subject have pointed out to us, the
question of Birth Control has been with the race practically since the
beginning of human history; and it has its correspondences in the
instinctive actions of the lower forms of life. The chief difference is
that we are now seeking to deal with these problems consciously,
voluntarily, and deliberately, whereas in the past the race has dealt
with them more or less unconsciously, by methods of trial and error,
through perpetual experiment which has often proved costly but which has
all the more clearly brought out the real course of natural processes.
We cannot hope to solve problems so ancient and so deeply rooted as
these by merely the rational methods of yesterday and today. To be of
value our rational methods must be the revelation in deliberate
consciousness of unconscious methods which go far back into the remote
past. Our deliberate methods will not be sound except in so far as they
are a continuation of those methods which, in the slow evolution of
life, have been found sound and progressive on the plane of instinct.
This is particularly true in the case of those among us who desire their
own line of conduct in the matter to be so closely in accord with
natural law, or the law of creation, that to question it would be
impious.
It may be accepted without an extended argument or presentation of
evidence that at the outset the prime object of Nature seems to have
been that of Reproduction. There is evident, without doubt, an effort on
the part of Nature to secure economy of method in the attainment of ever
greater perfection in the process of reproduction, but we cannot deny
that the primary motive seems to be that of reproduction pure and
simple. The tendency toward reproduction is indeed so fundamental in
Nature that it is impressed with the greatest emphasis upon every living
thing. And, as careful thinkers have told us "the course of evolution
seems to have been more of an effort to slow down reproduction than to
furnish it with new facilities."
Reproduction appears in the history of life even before sex manifests
itself. The lower forms of animal and plant life oftener produce
themselves without the aid of sex, and some authorities have argued that
the presence of sex differentiation serves rather to check active
propagation rather than to increase it. If quantity, without regard to
quality or variation, be the object of Nature, then that purpose would
have been better served by withholding sex-differentiation than by
evolving it. As Professor Coulter, a leading American botanist, has well
said: "The impression one gains of sexuality is that it represents
reproduction under peculiar difficulties."
To those who find it difficult to assimilate this somewhat startling
idea, we now present a brief statement of the infinitely greater
facility toward reproduction manifested by living creatures lacking in
sex-differentiation as compared with those possessing it. It is seen that
bacteria among primitive plants, and protozoa among primitive animals,
are patterns of very rapid and prolific reproduction, though sex begins
to appear in a rudimentary form in very lowly forms of life. A single
infusorian becomes in a week the ancestor of millions, that is to say,
of far more individuals than could proceed under the most favorable
conditions from a pair of elephants in five centuries; and Huxley has
calculated that the progeny of a single parthenogenetic aphis, under
favorable circumstances, would in a few months outweigh the whole
population of China. It must be noted, however, that this proviso "under
favorable circumstances" reveals the weak point of Nature's early method
of reproduction by enormously rapid multiplication. Creatures so easily
produced are easily destroyed; and Nature, apparently in consequence,
wastes no time in imparting to them the qualities needed for a high form
of life and living.
And, even after sex differentiation had attained a considerable degree of
development, Nature seemed slow to abandon her original plan of rapid
multiplication of individuals. Among insects so far advanced as the
white ants, the queen lays eggs at the enormous rate of 80,000 a day
during her period of active life. Higher in the scale, we find the
female herring laying 70,000 eggs at one period of delivery. But in both
of these cases we find the manifestation of that apparently invariable
rule of Nature, viz., that A HIGH BIRTH-RATE IS ACCOMPANIED BY A HEAVY
DEATH-RATE, whether that high death-rate be caused by natural enemies,
wars, or disease.
At a certain stage of the evolutionary process, Nature seems to have
awakened to a realization of the fact that it was better, from every
point of view, to produce A FEW superior beings rather than a vast
number of inferior ones. Here, at last, Nature discloses a heretofore
hidden aim, namely, the production of quality rather than quantity; and
once she has started on this new path, she has pursued it with even
greater eagerness than that of reproduction pure and simple. And here we
pause to note a principle laid down by the students of Evolution, viz.,
that ADVANCING EVOLUTION IS ACCOMPANIED BY DECLINING FERTILITY.
This new stage of Nature's processes is marked by a constant and
invariable manifestation of diminished number of offspring, accompanied
by an increased amount of time and care in the creation and breeding of
each of the young creatures. Accompanying this, we find that the
reproductive life of the creature is shortened, and confined to more or
less special periods; these periods beginning much later, and ending
much earlier, and even during their continuance tending to operate in
cycles of activity. Here, we see, NATURE, GROWN WISER BY EXPERIENCE,
HERSELF BEGAN TO EXERCISE HER POWER IN THE DIRECTION OF BIRTH
CONTROL--THE USE OF PREVENTIVE CHECKS ON REPRODUCTION.
A writer has said along these lines: "As reproduction slackened,
evolution was greatly accelerated. A highly important and essential
aspect of this greater individuation is a higher survival value. The
more complex and better equipped creature can meet and subdue
difficulties and dangers to which the more lowly organized creature that
came before--produced wholesale in a way which Nature seems to look
back on as cheap and nasty--succumbed helplessly without an effort. The
idea of economy began to assert itself in the world. It became clear in
the course of evolution that it is better to produce really good and
highly efficient organisms, at whatever cost, than to be content with
cheap production on a wholesale scale. They allowed greater
developmental progress to be made, and they lasted better. Even before
man began it was proved in the animal world that THE DEATH-RATE FALLS AS
THE BIRTH-RATE FALLS."
Let us compare the lowly herring with the highly evolved elephant. The
herring multiplies with enormous rapidity and on a vast scale, and it
possesses a very small brain, and is almost totally unequipped to
grapple with the special difficulties of its life, to which it succumbs
on a wholesale scale. A single elephant is carried for about two years
in its mother's womb, and is carefully guarded by her for many years
after birth; it possesses a large brain, and its muscular system is as
remarkable for its delicacy as for its power, and is guided by the most
sensitive perceptions. It is fully equipped for all the dangers of life,
save for those which have been introduced by the subtle ingenuity of
modern man. Though a single pair of elephants produces so few offspring,
yet their high cost is justified, for each of them has a reasonable
chance of surviving to old age. This contrast, from the point of view of
reproduction, of the herring and the elephant, well illustrates the
principle of evolution previously referred to. It brings clearly into
view the difference between Nature's earlier and her later methods--the
ever increasing preference for quality over quantity. Unless we grasp
this underlying principle of Nature in its wider aspects we may fail to
perceive its operations in the case of man, which latter we may now
consider.
It is, of course, impossible to speak positively regarding the
birth-rate and death-rate of the pre-historic primitive races of
mankind, for there is not data upon which to base such a report. But
reasoning upon the basis of conditions existing among the primitive
tribes of the present time we are justified in holding that in the early
stages of the evolution of the race there was manifested a high
birth-rate and a correspondingly high death-rate. Upon the basis of
conditions now existing among savage tribes it would appear that
primitive man has a higher birth-rate than the average of mankind today,
and likewise a higher death-rate. The rapidly increasing number of
children born to the tribe was counteracted by deaths among children
caused by neglect, poverty, and disease. In some cases the population
was prevented from becoming larger than the means of subsistence
justified by the practice of infanticide.
As to the condition of the race in the early stages of "modern"
civilization, we have modern Russia as a surviving instance of this
stage. In modern Russia we find, side by side with the progress in
neighboring nations, conditions which a few centuries ago existed all
over Europe. Here we have an enormous birth-rate, and a terrible
death-rate caused by ignorance, superstition, insanitation, filth, bad
food, impure water, plagues, famines, and other accompaniments of
overcrowding and misery. We find a mortality among young children which
sometimes destroys more than half of the children born before they have
attained the age of five years. As high as is the Russian birth-rate, it
is a matter of record that at times the death-rate has actually exceeded
it. And among the survivors there is found a startlingly large
percentage of chronic and incurable diseases, with a large number of
cases of blindness and other defects.
Similar results follow in China, where the birth-rate is exceptionally
high, and the death-rate correspondingly large; and where there is a
large percentage of inferior physical development and pathological
defects, the evil conditions which produce death also tending to produce
deterioration in the survivors. In both of these countries we have an
example of the result of unrestricted reproduction, and unrestricted
destruction--as among herrings, so among men. And yet this condition of
unrestricted reproduction is the logical goal of certain persons who,
inspired by the best possible intentions, in their ignorance and
criminal rashness would dare to arrest that fall in the birth-rate which
is now beginning to spread its influence in every civilized land.
In Western Europe before the nineteenth century the population increased
very slowly. The enormous birth-rate was nearly equalled by the
exceedingly heavy death-rate caused by plagues, pestilences, and famine,
and by the frequent wars large and small. The mortality among young
children was particularly heavy. Writers have pointed out that the old
family records show frequently two or three children of the same
Christian name, the first child having died and its name given to a
successor.
During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when machinery was
introduced and a new industrial era opened, the birth-rate rose rapidly.
Factories springing up gave increased support to many, and as children
were employed as "hands" in the mills at an early age, the richest
family was the one with most children. The population began to increase
rapidly. But soon disease, misery, and poverty arose from filth and
insanitation, immorality and crime, overcrowding and child-labor, drink
and lack of sane courses of conduct.
In time, however, progress set in, and social reformers began the great
movement for the betterment of the environment, sanitation, shorter
hours of labor, and restriction of child-labor, factory regulation, etc.
And when the environment is bettered, the death-rate drops, and the
birth-rate accompanies it on its downward progress. As Leroy-Beaulieu
says: "The first degree of prosperity in a rude population with few
needs tends toward prolificness of reproduction; a later degree of
prosperity, accompanied by all the feelings and ideas stimulated by the
reduction of such prolificness."
The law of the reduction of reproduction in response to the improvement
of environment is a natural law, arising from fixed biological
principles. This is because when we improve the environment we improve
the individual situated in that environment; and the improvement of the
individual has always resulted in a check upon reproduction. We must
remember, however, that this change is not the result of conscious or
voluntary action; instead it is the result of unconscious activities and
instinctive urge. As Sir Shirley Murphy has said: "Birth Control is a
natural process, and though in civilized men, endowed with high
intelligence, it necessarily works in some measure voluntarily and
deliberately, it is probable that it also works, as in the evolution of
the lower animals, to some extent automatically."
Science shows us that even among the most primitive micro-organisms;
when placed under unfavorable conditions as to food and environment,
they tend to pass into a reproductive phase and by sporulation or
otherwise begin to produce new individuals rapidly. This, of course,
because of the fact that their death-rate is increased, and an increased
birth-rate must be manifested in order to maintain a balance. If the
environment be improved, the death-rate decreases, and this is followed
by a fall in the birth-rate, according to the constant laws of Nature
manifesting in such cases.
The same law is seen to be manifested in the case of Man. Improve his
environment, and his death-rate drops, which is accompanied by a
falling birth-rate. Here, once more we see the application of the
scientific axiom "Improve the environment and reproduction is checked."
As Leroy-Beaulieu has said: "The tendency of civilization is to reduce
the birth-rate." And as Professor Benjamin Moore has said: "Decreased
reproduction is the simple biological reply to good economic
conditions." And as Havelock Ellis has said: "Those who desire a higher
birth-rate are desiring, whether they know it or not, the increase of
poverty, ignorance, and wretchedness."
Among men, Birth Control has now evolved from the unconscious and
instinctive phase, and is now unfolding and manifesting on the plane of
conscious and voluntary activity. The influence of deliberate intention
and conscious design is now one of the important factors in the process.
Here at this point we reach a totally new aspect of reproduction. In the
past stages of evolution the original impetus toward reproduction has
been checked and directed by Nature, working along instinctive and
unconscious lines; and the result has been an extreme diminution of the
number of off-spring; a prolongation of the time devoted to the breeding
and care of each new member of the family, in harmony with its greatly
prolonged life; a spacing out of the intervals between the offspring;
and, as a result, a vastly greater development of each individual, and
an ever better equipment for the task of living. All this was slowly
attained automatically, without any conscious volition on the part of
the individuals, even when they were human beings, who were the agents.
Now, however, we are confronted with a change which we may regard as, in
some respects, the most momentous sudden advance in the whole history of
reproduction, namely, the process of reproductive progress now become
conscious and deliberately volitional. Birth control, no longer
automatic, is now being directed by human mind and will precisely to the
attainment of ends which Nature has been struggling after for millions
of years; and, being consciously and deliberately directed, it is now
enabled to avoid many of the pitfalls into which the unconscious method
fell.
Havelock Ellis says: "The control and limitation of reproductive
activity by conscious and volitional effort is an attempt by open-eyed
intelligence and foresight to attain those ends which Nature through
untold generations has been painfully yet tirelessly struggling for. The
deliberate co-operation of Man in the natural task of Birth Control
represents an identification of the human will with what we may, if we
choose, regard as the divinely appointed law of the world. We can well
believe that the great pioneers, who, a century ago, acted in the spirit
of this faith may have echoed the thought of Kepler when, on discovering
his great planetary law, he exclaimed in rapture: 'O God! I think Thy
thoughts after Thee!'"
The following brief general history of the modern Birth Control movement
is quoted from Havelock Ellis, and will be of interest to students of
the subject: "The pioneers of modern Birth Control were English. Among
them Malthus occupies the first place. That distinguished man, in his
great and influential work, 'The Principles of Population,' in 1798,
emphasized the immense importance of foresight and self-control in
procreation, and the profound significance of birth limitation for human
welfare. Malthus, however, relied on ascetic self-restraint, a method
which could only appeal to the few; he had nothing to say for the
regulation of conception in intercourse. That was suggested twenty years
later, very cautiously by James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, in
the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Four years afterwards, Mill's friend,
the Radical reformer, Francis Place, advocated this method more clearly.
Finally, in 1831, Robert Dale Owen, the son of the great Robert Owen,
published his 'Moral Physiology,' in which he set forth the ways of
preventing conception; while a little later the Drysdale brothers,
ardent and unwearying philanthropists, devoted their energies to a
propaganda which has been spreading ever since and has now conquered the
whole civilized world.
"It was not, however, in England but in France, so often at the head of
an advance in civilization, that Birth Control first firmly became
established, and that the extravagantly high birth rate of earlier times
began to fall; this happened in the first half of the nineteenth
century, whether or not it was mainly due to voluntary control. In
England the movement came later, and the steady decline in the English
birth-rate, which is still proceeding, began in 1877. In the previous
year there had been a famous prosecution of Bradlaugh and Mrs. Besant
for disseminating pamphlets describing the methods of preventing
conception; the charge was described by the Lord Chief Justice, who
tried the case, as one of the most ill-advised and injudicious ever made
in a court of justice. But it served an undesigned end by giving
enormous publicity to the subject and advertising the methods it sought
to suppress. There can be no doubt, however, that even apart from this
trial the movement would have proceeded on the same lines. The times
were ripe, the great industrial expansion had passed its first feverish
phase, social conditions were improving, education was spreading. The
inevitable character of the movement is indicated by the fact that at
the very same time it began to be manifested all over Europe, indeed in
every civilized country of the world.
"At the present time the birth-rate (as well as usually the death-rate)
is falling in every country of the world sufficiently civilized to
possess statistics of its own vital movement. The fall varies in
rapidity. It has been considerable in the more progressive countries; it
has lingered in the more backward countries. If we examine the latest
statistics for Europe, we find that every country, without exception,
with a progressive and educated population, and a fairly high state of
social well-being, presents a birth-rate below 30 per 1,000. We also
find that every country in Europe in which the mass of the people are
primitive, ignorant, or in a socially unsatisfactory condition (even
although the governing classes may be progressive or ambitious) shows a
birth-rate of above 30 per 1,000. France, Great Britain, Belgium,
Holland, the Scandinavian countries, and Switzerland are in the first
group. Russia, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the Balkan countries
are in the second group. The German Empire was formerly in the second
group, but now comes within the first group, and has carried on the
movement so energetically that the birth-rate of Berlin is already below
that of London, and that at the present rate of decline the birth-rate
of the German Empire will before long sink to that of France. Outside
Europe, in the United States just as much as in Australia and New
Zealand, the same progressive movement is proceeding with equal
activity."
The same authority sums up the present attitude of the advocates of
scientific and rational Birth Control, as follows: "The wide survey of
the question of birth limitation has settled the question of the
desirability of the adoption of preventing conception, and finally
settled those who would waste out time with their fears that it is not
right to control conception. We know now on whose side are the laws of
God and Nature. We realize that in exercising control over the entrance
gate of life we are not fully performing, consciously and deliberately,
a great human duty, but carrying on rationally a beneficial process
which has, more blindly and wastefully, been carried on since the
beginning of the world. There are still a few persons ignorant enough or
foolish enough to fight against the advance of civilization in this
matter; we can well afford to leave them severely alone, knowing that in
a few years all of them will have passed away. It is not our business to
defend the control of birth, but simply discuss how we may most wisely
exercise that control."