PREVENTION OF PREGNANCY
This morning I received a letter which says in part, "I am a young
school teacher and do not know lots I should, but will come to you for
advice. Now I am engaged to the dearest boy in the world. I will do my
best to be a good wife and do my duty. But my health is not so very good
and I want to put off motherhood for awhile. Will you kindly tell me
some remedy that will keep me from becoming pregnant? I have long wanted
to ask someone but always was afraid. Mother never tells me anything."
This is the type of question that is asked every physician many times.
Those who do not ask, wish to--and blame physicians for not telling the
things they want to know. What is my answer to such a question? Just
this:
There is in effect a federal statute making it a felony punishable by
$5,000 fine and five years at hard labor to impart any information
_whatever_ relating to the preventing of conception. The information may
concern a thing, an instrument, or it need not be any material substance
at all--only a "method." I obey that law as I am not foolhardy enough to
walk into absolute danger.
Every day we see examples of heart-breaking misery caused by lack of
knowledge of the proper means of prevention. The limitation of the
number of offspring has become an important problem to be considered.
There are thousands of families that would be perfectly happy if the
number of offspring could be limited. There are thousands of young men
who would be glad to get married but are afraid to do so for fear of
having a family larger than they could supply with the necessities of
life. These same young men, because they are not married, frequent
questionable houses and often contract one or more of the venereal
diseases.
There are thousands of women who have become semi-invalids because of a
too prolific offspring. The babies came so fast the mother had no
opportunity to regain her health and strength. There are other thousands
of women who are made invalids because of attempts at abortion, or have
been driven into early graves by these attempts, while some have
actually killed themselves.
There are thousands of children half starved because their parents are
unable to supply them the necessities of life. There are other thousands
of children below par mentally and physically because of the fact that
the mother was weak from too frequent child-bearing. There are other
thousands of children born of syphilitic, tubercular or epileptic
parents who never should have been born at all because they came into
life so handicapped and had to fight against such severe odds that they,
after a brief struggle, met an early death. There are children brought
into this world amidst cursing who never hear much else.
We find it necessary to regulate the parentage of our domestic animals
in order to insure a good race. But children can come by chance. The
most degraded of men is allowed to beget children of his kind. There is
small chance for race improvement under such conditions. The same laws
hold true as to the future generation of humans as are true of animals
or plants.
Human beings are not mere animals and they should be allowed to decide
how many children they should have. Furthermore, the present laws do not
attain their object. We all pretend to obey the laws but everyone knows
that in every city there are many women, and men also, who make an
excellent income from performing abortions. I would venture to say that
in Chicago alone there is at least one abortion performed every
hour--and Chicago is not so very different from other parts of the
country in this respect. The ways and means to prevent pregnancy are
sold and are bringing a rich reward to their manufacturers. But the
advertisements are so carefully worded that the law is not violated. But
the interested understand. If the manufacturer or his agent were accused
of selling anything to prevent pregnancy, he would simulate great
surprise and possible indignation. He doing such a thing! Impossible!
Why, he is selling a simple hygienic device or drug used in the
treatment of certain diseases.
If we have laws, let us obey them; but if we do not intend to obey them,
let us stop being hypocrites and remove them from the statutes. If the
law remains let us make it far-reaching enough to include those who now
are so flagrantly violating it. But if means for the prevention of
pregnancy are necessary to the health and happiness of the human race,
let us change the laws so we can have the best of these preventives and
allow reputable physicians to give whatever information they can to
prevent this wholesale misuse of a law by the unscrupulous,--the
law-breakers.
A recent investigation carried on by one magazine proved that the
knowledge of how to prevent conception would not mean race suicide, as
some fear. As reported in this magazine, the college girls and
professional women who no doubt had given these subjects careful
consideration, desired children more than did those whose experience had
been a poor home and a large family. The average number of children
desired by the well-informed woman was four. That would not mean
race-suicide! It would mean that children were given a fair start in
life by being desired and planned for before their conception. Every
true woman desires a home and children but she does not wish to be
driven into motherhood. Every true man desires a family but he does not
feel justified in bringing children into the world to be half starved
and with no advantages of education.
What is the solution of the problem?