But to come back to Mrs. Smith. She went away from the indignant adamant doctor. But she was determined not to give birth to another child. She confided her trouble to a neighbor, who sent her to a midwife. The midwife was neither very expert, nor very clean. Mrs.
Smith had to go to her two or three times. After bleeding for about ten days she developed blood poisoning, from which she died a few days later, at the early age of twenty-nine, leaving a disconsolate father, who in time to come will probably find consolation with another woman, and five motherless children, who will never find consolation. One may find a subst.i.tute for a wife, there is no subst.i.tute for a mother.
And such tragedies are of daily occurrence. May the Lord have mercy on the souls of those who are responsible for them.
Before I proceed further I wish to say that it is the terrible prevalence of the abortion evil, with its concomitant evils of infection, ill health, chronic invalidism and death, that more than any other single factor urges us in our birth control propaganda. And those who want to forbid the dissemination of any information about the prevention of conception are playing directly into the hands of the professional abortionists. They could not act any more zealously if they were in league with the latter and were paid by them. And having mentioned the subject of abortion, I wish to utter a note of warning. In our birth control propaganda, we must be very careful to keep the question of the prevention of conception and of abortion separate and apart. The stupid law puts the two in the same paragraph, some ignorant laymen and equally ignorant physicians treat the two as if they were the same thing, but we, in our speeches and our writings, must keep the two separate, we must show the people the essential difference between prevention and abortion, between refraining from creating life and destroying life already created; we must show the viciousness of meting out the same punishment for two things which are fundamentally different, different not only in degree but in kind--and it is only by thus keeping the two things apart, by showing that we stand for one thing--prevention--and not for the other--abortion, that we can ever gain the general sympathy of the public and the co-operation of the legislators. I do not say that there are not many cases in which the induction of abortion is not only justifiable, but imperative; but that is a different question, and the two issues must not be confused. And we would and should resent any attempt on the part of either enemy or friend to so confuse them.
_Case 2._ Mr. A. and Miss B. are in love with each other. But they cannot get married, for his salary is too small. They might risk getting married, if the specter of an indefinite number of children did not stretch out its restraining hand. She comes from a good family, she was brought up, if not in the lap of luxury, in the lap of comfort and coziness, and it is the ambition of every good American to furnish his wife at least as good a home as her father gave her. Her father, by the way, died prematurely from overwork in trying to give all possible comforts and advantages to a bevy of six unmarried and marriageable daughters.
As I said, the fear of children kept them back. Each year the hope revived that in another year their union in matrimony would be consummated. But the years pa.s.sed. Mr. A."s hair became thin and grayish, Miss B began to look haggard and pinched--and still the marriage could not take place. Miss B was very religious and very proper, and would not do anything that was improper. A was not quite so proper; he paid occasional visits elsewhere, and as instruction in venereal prophylaxis was not included in his college course, he acquired a gonorrhea, which it took him about six months to get rid of. To shorten the story, A was thirty-nine and Miss B was thirty-five when the many times postponed marriage was consummated, but Cupid seemed to be busy elsewhere when the ceremony took place, and there is very little romance in their married life. The marriage has remained childless, as I told Mr. A it would be.
I consider this a ruined life--and all for the lack of a little knowledge.
If the anti-preventionists, those who are opposed to any information about the prevention of conception, were not so hopelessly stupid, they would see that from their own point of view it would be better if such information were legally obtainable. For it would be instrumental in causing more marriages which otherwise remain unconsummated, and by favoring early marriages, it would be instrumental in curtailing the demand for prost.i.tution, in diminishing venereal disease. And as is well known, venereal disease is one of the great factors in race suicide.
_Case 3._ A young woman was married to a man who besides being a brutal drunkard was subject to periodic fits of insanity. Every year or two he would be taken to the lunatic asylum for a few weeks or months, and then discharged. And every time on his discharge he would celebrate his liberty by impregnating his wife. She hated and loathed him, but could not protect herself against his "embraces." And she had to see herself giving birth to one abnormal child after another. She begged her doctor to give her some means of prevention, but that b.o.o.b claimed ignorance, and the illegality of the thing. The woman finally committed suicide, but not before she had given birth to six abnormal children, who will probably grow up drunkards, criminals or insane.
And because we object to such kind of breeding, we are accused of being enemies of the human race, of advocating race suicide, of violating the laws of G.o.d and man. Oh, for a mighty Sampson to strike the imbeciles with the jaw of an a.s.s, for a mental Hercules to loosen the fontanelles of their petrified skulls and put some sense into them!
_Case 4._ This observation concerns a couple both of whom had a very bad heredity. The blood of each was badly tainted. The doctor who had treated the husband cautioned them and told them that they had no right to have children. But here the tables were turned. The doctor wanted to give them the means for prevention, but the husband and wife, pious Roman Catholics, would not go against their religion and G.o.d (as if G.o.d wanted a world full of imbeciles), and refused to employ any precautions. They have had four children so far. One of them seems fairly normal, except that he is silly, in which respect he is merely like his parents; two are deaf and blind in one eye; the fourth is a cretin, practically an idiot.
This case brings us face to face with another phase of the problem.
What should we do when the parents, stupid and ignorant, refuse to stop breeding worthless material? Eugenic agitation, education, will bring about such a strong public opinion that none but idiots, who will be vasectomized or segregated, will dare to bring into the world children that are physically and mentally handicapped.
_Case 5._ This couple had been married eight years, and had five children And the wife said she could not stand it any more. Another child--no, she preferred death. They practiced coitus interruptus for a while, with mutual disgust, but when the wife was caught again, she said: "No more!" And she would not let her husband come near her. He could do what he pleased--she did not care. After a few months he began to go elsewhere--contracted syphilis, had to give up his position, the home was broken up, the wife went out to work, the children are scattered--in short, a home, which we are told is the foundation of our society, is broken up, and there is misery and wretchedness all around--and all for the lack of a little timely information.
_Case 6._ Mr. A and Miss B, twenty-eight and twenty-five years old respectively, have known one another for several years, and in spite of their occupation, which is supposed to make people blase and cynical--he being a reporter and she a special story writer--are quite in love with each other. But their occupation and income are such that they cannot possibly afford to have and to bring up any children. They would love to get married, but the specter of a child--or rather of children--frightens them; and they remain single, to the great physical and mental injury of both. Accidentally they learn of appropriate means of regulating conception, get married and live happily--ever after, that is, until they find themselves in a position to have children and to bring them up properly.
In what way was society injured by this young couple acquiring contraceptive information?
_Case 7._ Mr. C and Miss D are in love with each other. Unfortunately there is a strong hereditary taint of insanity on both sides. They are too high-minded to think of giving birth to children. They might be all right, but with insanity one does not take any chances. The thing is too terrible. They are condemned to a life of celibacy, which to them means a life of loneliness and misery. But like an angel from heaven comes to them the knowledge that one can live a love-life without any penalties attached to it. They get married and there is not a happier couple living.
In what way has society been injured by this couple obtaining the contraceptive knowledge?
_Case 8._ Mr. and Mrs. E have been married five years. They have a child four years old which shows unmistakable symptoms of epilepsy.
They are horrified and an investigation discloses the fact that on her side in the preceding generation there was a good deal of epilepsy. Of course, the next child may not be epileptic. But then again it may. No parents with any sense of responsibility would take such chances. They decide to give up conjugal relations. They keep it up for about thirteen or fourteen months; then one night an accident happens and very soon she finds herself pregnant. She declares she would rather die than to give birth to and have to take care of another epileptic child. She goes to a friendly physician who performs an abortion on her, and now the couple, not secure against future accidents, if they live together, decide to separate, and a tragedy is in sight.
Fortunately they learn that conception can be prevented, and they continue to live together with benefit to themselves and harm to none.
In what way has society been injured by those people acquiring contraceptive information?
_Case 9._ Mr. and Mrs. F have been married six years, and in these six years they have been blessed with four children. When he married he was getting twenty-two dollars a week, and that is exactly what he is getting now. In the meantime the cost of living has gone up twenty-five per cent., and there are four extra mouths to feed and four extra bodies to clothe. What difference this has made in that little household can better be imagined than stated. The little mother has aged sixteen years in those six years, and there is not a trace left of her girlishness and youthfulness. She loves her children, and does not want to get rid of them. She would not take a million dollars for one of them, but she would not give five cents for another. But this is just what terrifies them; the possibility of another. And that possibility makes her irritable, makes her repel her husband"s slightest advances, makes her move his bed to another room.
She even tells him to satisfy his s.e.xual desires elsewhere--and at the same time she is in fear and trembling that he might follow her advice. In short, a nice young home is about to be disrupted.
Fortunately he reads somewhere an article on the subject of voluntary limitation of offspring, he begins to investigate; his physician pleads ignorance, but he is persistent, the physician investigates and obtains the desired information, which he shares with the patient.
Harmony is restored and a happy home is re-established.
Who was injured by the couple obtaining this information? And if n.o.body was injured, and everybody concerned was benefited, then why should the imparting of such information be considered a felony, punishable like the most atrocious of crimes?
_Case 10._ Mr. and Mrs. G have been married fifteen years. They were the parents of seven children, a large enough number for any family.
Those seven children were born during the first eleven years of their married life. During the past five years, afraid of having any more, they first abstained and then adopted a method which every modern s.e.xologist knows is injurious to the nervous system of both the man and the woman. The man became a wreck; first neurasthenic, then impotent, cranky and grouchy, unable to get along in the office, constantly squabbling with his wife, who became just as bad a wreck.
Their economic condition plus too many small children prevented the parents" separation. They remained living together, but they lived like a cat and a dog tied in a bag. Each silently prayed to be rid of the other. But a conversation overheard at a Turkish baths establishment put him on the right trail, and one year later we find the couple reconciled, both in good health and living a peaceful and fairly harmonious life. And those who have benefited most by the change are the children. In what way was society injured? And still if the doctor who gave Mr. G the information should have been caught and convicted, he would have been sent to prison for a year or two or five. Would he have deserved it? Here we have several plain, simple, unvarnished and unembellished cases which are typical of millions of similar cases and which prove conclusively that the law against imparting information about preventing conception is brutal, vicious, antisocial. Should not such a law be repealed, wiped off the statute books?
FOOTNOTES:
[8] The Limitation of Offspring by the Prevention of Conception.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ADVICE TO GIRLS APPROACHING THE THRESHOLD OF WOMANHOOD
The Irresistible Attraction of the Young Girl for the Male--The Unprotected Girl"s Temptations--Some Men Who Will Pester the Young Girl--Risk of Venereal Infection--Danger of Impregnation--Use of Contraceptives by the Unmarried Woman May Not Always Be Relied Upon--Nature of Men who Seduce Girls--Exceptions--Illegitimate Motherhood--Difficulties in the Way of Illegitimate Mother Who Must Earn Her Living--The Child of the Foundling Asylum--Social Att.i.tude Towards Illegitimacy Responsible for Abortion Evil--Dangers of Abortion--The Girl Who Has Lost Her Virginity.
When a girl has pa.s.sed the transition period of p.u.b.erty and is entering upon young womanhood she exerts an irresistible attraction on the male s.e.x. Whether she give the impression of a luscious red rose or of a delicate white lily, the charms of a beautiful, healthy, bright girl of seventeen or eighteen are undeniable and their appeal to the esthetic and s.e.xual sense of every normal male is a normal, _natural_ phenomenon. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that it is so, we will not stop to discuss here. But it is a natural phenomenon, a natural law, if you will, and one does not quarrel with natural phenomena. It is useless. But the attraction which the girl exercises on the male is fraught with danger to her, and therefore a few words of advice and of warning are not out of place.
=Temptations.= Fortunate are you, my young girl friend, if you come from a well-sheltered home, if you have been properly brought up, if you have a good and wise mother who knows how to take care of you. A mother"s wise counsel given at the proper time, and her comradeship all the time, are more invulnerable than an armor of bronze and more secure than locked doors and barred windows. But if you have lost your mother at an early age, or if your mother is not of the right sort--it is no use hiding the fact that some mothers are not what they should be--if you have to shift for yourself, if you have to work in a shop, in an office, and particularly if you live alone and not with your parents, then temptations in the shape of men, young and old, will encounter you at every step; they will swarm about you like flies about a lump of sugar; they will stick to you like bees to a bunch of honeysuckle.
I do not want you to get the false idea that all men or most men are bad and mean, and are constantly on the lookout to ruin young girls.
No. Most men are good and honorable and too conscientious to ruin a young life. But there are some men, young and old, who are devoid of any conscience, who are so egotistic that their personal pleasure is their only guide of conduct. They will pester you. Some will lyingly claim that they are in love with you; some perhaps will sincerely believe that they are in love with you, mistaking a temporary pa.s.sion for the sacred feeling of love. Some will even promise to marry you--some making the promise in sincerity, others with the deliberate intent to deceive. Still others will try to convince you that chast.i.ty is an old superst.i.tion, and that there is nothing wrong in s.e.xual relations. In short, all ways and means will be employed by those men to induce you to enter into s.e.xual relations with them.
_Don"t you do it!_
I am not preaching or sermonizing to you. I am not appealing to your religion or your morals. For if you have strong religious or moral ideas against illicit s.e.xual relations, you are not in need of mine or anybody else"s advice. But I a.s.sume that you are a more or less modern girl, with little or no religious bringing-up, or perhaps a radical girl, who has shaken off the shackles of religion and tradition. And to you I say: _Don"t you do it_. Why? Because your welfare, your future happiness, is at stake. I am speaking from the point of view of your own good, and from that point of view I say: Resist all attempts which men make exclusively for the purpose of satisfying their s.e.xual desire, their l.u.s.t.
You will ask again, why? For several reasons. First, you run the risk of venereal infection. The danger is not so great now as in former times, but is great enough. There are still plenty of men dishonest enough to indulge in s.e.xual relations with a woman when they know they are not radically cured. The same man who will not get married unless he is sure that he is perfectly cured will not hesitate to subject a transient girl or woman to the risk of venereal infection. I know personally, because I have treated them; yes, I treated several intelligent and radical young men who infected young girls. And some of these girls in their turn, through ignorance and innocence, infected other men. So then, the first danger is the danger of venereal infection.
The second danger, still greater and more certain than the first, is the danger of impregnation. And pregnancy for a girl under our present moral and social-economic conditions is a terrible calamity. She is ostracized everywhere, and it means, if discovered, her social death.
But you will say: "Aren"t there any remedies that can be used to prevent conception? Aren"t you yourself among the world"s chief birth-controllers; one of the world"s chief advocates of the use of contraceptives?" Yes, my dear young lady, but I never made the claim that the contraceptives were _absolutely_ infallible, I never claimed that they were _100 per cent._ effective in _100 per cent._ of _all_ cases. But if they are effective 999 times or even 990 times in every 1000 they are a blessing. And thousands of families so consider them.
And if a married woman gets caught once in a while, the misfortune is not so great. But if the accident happens to a non-married woman, the misfortune _is_ great. Then again, you want to bear in mind that accidents are less likely to happen to married than to non-married women. The married woman has no fear, needs no secrecy, and she can go about the method of preparation carefully, with deliberation. The unmarried girl, _as a rule_, has not the proper conveniences, more or less secrecy must be maintained, hurry is not infrequently necessary, and that is why accidents are more apt to occur in spite of the use of contraceptives. So then, the second danger, even more sinister than the first, is the danger of pregnancy. "But if a misfortune happens, can I not have an abortion produced?" No, not always. Physicians willing to induce an abortion are not found on every corner. But this is not the princ.i.p.al point. What I have to say on the subject, I will say later on in this chapter.
Then it is well for you to bear in mind that those very men who use their utmost efforts, who strain every fibre and every nerve to get you, will despise you and detest you as soon as they have succeeded in making you yield to their wishes. This is one of the worst blots on the male man"s character, a blot from which the female character is entirely free. And some men--fortunately their number is not very large--are such moral skunks that they take morbid pleasure in boasting publicly of their s.e.xual conquests, and unscrupulously peddle about the name of the girl whom, by cunning false promises or other means, they succeeded in seducing. And of course such a girl finds it difficult or impossible to get married, and must end her days in solitude, without the hope of a home of her own.
For the above reasons I advise you earnestly and sincerely not to yield to the solicitations of thoughtless or unscrupulous men, who think of nothing but their coa.r.s.e sensual pleasures. It is advice dictated by common sense, by your own deeper interest, aside from any religious or moral considerations.
The above advice, or call it sermon if you will, is meant princ.i.p.ally for young girls, girls between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five.
If a girl has reached the age of twenty-eight or thirty and is willing to enter upon illicit s.e.xual relations with her eyes open, with a full knowledge of the possible consequences, then it is her affair, and n.o.body shall say her nay. n.o.body has a right to interfere.
Nor should my advice be understood as directed to cases where there is sincere reciprocal affection and a mutual understanding. This is an entirely different matter, and has nothing to do with cases where the man is the pursuer or seducer and the woman an unwilling or reluctant victim.
But whatever the relations between the man and the girl may be, whether she yielded in a fit of pa.s.sion, or was seduced by false promises, by "moral" suasion, by hypnotic influence or by the vulgar method of being made drunk, what is she to do if she finds herself, to her horror, in a pregnant condition? There are two ways open to her: either let the pregnancy go to term or to have an abortion brought on.
If she lets the pregnancy go to term she has the alternative of bringing up the child herself openly or of placing it secretly in a foundling asylum. In the first case, the necessity of publicly acknowledging illegitimate motherhood requires so much moral courage that not one woman in a thousand is equal to it. It is not moral courage alone that is required; the social ostracism could be borne with stoicism and even with equanimity, if with it were not frequently a.s.sociated the fear or the real danger of starvation. For under our present system the illegitimate mother finds many avenues of activity closed to her. A school teacher would lose her position instantly, and so would a woman in any public position. It is feared that her example might have a contaminating influence on the children or on her fellow workers. Nor could she be a social worker--I know of more than one woman who lost her position with social or philanthropic inst.i.tutions as soon as it was discovered that she did not live up strictly to the conventional code of s.e.x morality. Nor could she be a private governess.
It is thus seen that to acknowledge one"s self an illegitimate mother requires so much courage, so much sacrifice, that very, very few mothers are now found that are equal to the task. Especially so when it is taken into consideration that the humiliations and indignities to which the child is subjected and the later reproaches of the child itself make the mother"s life a veritable h.e.l.l. So this alternative is generally out of the question.