Some objections to contraception answered / by Marie Carmichael Stopes.

  • Stopes, Marie Carmichael, 1880-1958.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Some objections to contraception answered / by Marie Carmichael Stopes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fertility : it is ridiculously untrue of the typical working women who really form the vast majority of our female popula tion, most of whom have babies annually or are incessantly bringing on abortions. It has even been said by a distinguished authority that abortions and miscarriages are more numerous than live births in some towns. I have no doubt that prevention of maternity by artificial methods invariably produces physical, mental and I think moral harm to those who resort to it ... I am sure it does harm to both if they both agree to it. The act is incomplete ; it is not a spontaneous act ; and if the act ceases before the proper crisis, as it were, the nervous system suffers enormously if the habit is con tinued for long. And the result often is that there is a great deal of congestion produced in the woman, at all events. This state ment by AMAND RouTH, M.D., before the Birth Rate Commission in 1914 appears to be a weighty medical opinion against all artificial contraceptives. It is unqualified, and if read by those who know less than dr. ROUTH about the subject will appear to be an argument against all birth control methods ; but those who examine it care fully will perceive that he is evidently speaking specially of coitus interruptus,