Birth Control

"More than 2,000,000 babies will be born in America this year. . . . Within 15 years . . . 738,386 will be ... dead, crippled, tubercular, mentally deficient, delinquent, maladjusted 'problem children.' . . . The First Key to Strong National Health [is] BIRTH CONTROL."

So ran a huge advertisement in the press last week. Sponsor: the National Committee for Planned Parenthood in behalf of Margaret Sanger's Birth Control Federation of America. It was the first time in the U. S. that newspaper space had been sold to advertise birth control. The ad urged that birth-control information be given to parents in "homesteads, mining districts, slums and migrant camps," asked citizens to donate money and services to the Federation. Within two days, the Birth Controllers received almost 500 letters--all but five sympathetic.

Birth Control is no longer a "crusading" movement. Gone are the days when Nurse Margaret Sanger languished in jail for "obscenity," or when her sister Ethel went on a hunger strike to attract public attention. Birth-control clinics are still illegal in only two States; contraceptives may now legally be sold in all but two.* According to a recent Gallup Poll, 77% of U. S. citizens favor dissemination of birth-control information through Government health clinics. Three States (North and South Carolina, Alabama) include contraception in their public health programs. With its 612 clinics doing a land-office business, the Federation, always hard-pressed for funds, is eager for other State health services to take over.

Big problem of the Federation today is to get women in rural districts to continue use of contraceptives, once they have been taught how. Apparently standard measures are too expensive, too complicated. Federation workers place great hope in a new method which does not require special fittings, is easy to insert, is claimed to be about 85% effective. A year's supply of materials costs a maximum of 75-c-.

* Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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