International Aspects of Birth Control.
Sanger, Margaret, ed. International Aspects of Birth Control. The Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference. Volume 1. New York: The American Birth Control League, 1925.
8vo.; faint dampstaining to fore- and bottom edges; brown wrappers, glued; spine nicked. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of this collection of papers contributed by doctors and women’s health clinics from around the world for the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference, which was held in New York in March of 1925. Contains 28 reports from medical experts in Western Europe, Asia, and regions in the United States on birth control practices and public access to various methods of birth control, as well as additional papers concerning the impact of reproductive rights on the woman’s movement. With an introduction by Sanger, then President of the American Birth Control League (ABCL), outlining the achievements of the previous conferences and the need for governments to view the issue of contraception “not merely on grounds of economic and social expediency, but as logically and morally necessary from the medical, psychological, and biological points of view” (Introduction, p. ix). A transcript of Sanger’s welcome address follows her introduction, and a sampling of enthusiastic and supportive messages sent to the Conference by a number of notable people, such as W.E.B. DuBois, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Upton Sinclair concludes the volume.
Subsequent volumes published from this conference contain papers written by people outside of the medical community, such as social scientists and philosophers, and deal more specifically with ethical, hygienic and psychological considerations, taking into account factors such as race, religion, and economic background as they relate to birth control.
The Neo-Malthusians formed an alliance with the ABCL when it was recognized that the two groups shared a common goal: increasing public awareness of the negative consequences of overpopulation, such as poverty, unemployment and overcrowding; and lobbying governments to address the problem. The philosophy of the Neo-Malthusians is rooted in the ideas of social scientist Thomas Malthus, who in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) predicted that a population’s fertility rate over time will tend to increase at an exponential rate and eventually, if not controlled, exhaust the food supply. The Neo-Malthusians held their first international conference to discuss overpopulation in 1900. The first four conferences sponsored by the Neo-Malthusians did not include any American delegates and did not directly deal with the question of birth control or issues of women’s health.
Sanger explains in her introduction that while the ABCL began its campaign with the goal of “the liberation of mothers and children,” and developed its ideology independently from Malthusian principles, it was “inevitable” that the groups would join forces, since advocates of birth control are by extension promoting Malthusian population control reform. Sanger describes the development of the birth control movement as “advanced on purely individual, feministic, and profoundly eugenic bases, emphasizing the desiderata of Quality as opposed to Quantity in the procreation of humans” and names the struggle for birth control rights as “the new battle for human emancipation.” The Fifth International Conference of the Neo-Malthusians was co-hosted by the ABCL and, according to Sanger, “permanently cemented” the “union of fighting forces” (Introduction, p. ix).
In the penultimate paragraph of the introduction, Sanger explains the decision to publish the papers from the conference:
The American Birth Control League announces four steps to our desired goal—agitation, education, organisation, and legislation. The reports from foreign countries, which make up so large a proportion of the present volume, indicate the
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