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1226

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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1226 An American Dilemma
of Columbia countenance the interruption of pregnancy not only to save the life of the
mother but also to preserve her health. The Mississippi law forbids abortions but adds
the cryptic provision, ‘unless the same shall have been advised by a physician to be
necessary for such purpose.’” (B. B. Tolnai, “Abortions and the Law,” Nation
[April IS, 1939], p. 425.)
U.S, Bureau of the Census, BirthSy Stillbirths and Infant Mortality Statistics:
1936, p. 9-
®®Alva Myrdal, of, cit,
®®For the dramatic history of the movement see: Margaret Sanger, My Fight for
Birth Control (1931) or Autobiografhy (1938).
®^The legal fight began in 1873 when the anti-birth control forces led by Anthony
Comstock secured a federal law prohibiting the use of the mails for the dissemination
of birth control information and prohibiting the importation of contraceptives. Many
of the state governments before or after this year took steps to stop the sale of contra-
ceptives and the encouragement of their use. The scope of the federal law was some-
what narrowed by a series of court decisions, but a major setback to this law did not
come until 1936, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
declared that birth control devices and information could be imported and sent through
the mails by doctors “for the purpose of saving life or promoting the well-being of their
patients.” In the meantime some states have repealed or nullified their laws.
In July, 1942, 19 states make no mention of the prevention of conception in their
statutes; 13 states have statutes which restrict the distribution and dissemination of
information regarding the prevention of conception, but expressly exempt medical
practice; 14 states have statutes aimed at the advertising and distribution of information
regarding the prevention of conception, but exempt medical practice by implication
or construction; only two states—Massachusetts and Connecticut—have laws which
penalize even physicians for giving information. (See: “The Legal Status of Contra-
ception,” mimeographed leaflet distributed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America, July, 1942.) Three states actually sponsor birth control clinics. But the fight
is far from won: the federal law remains on the books for all nonmedical persons and
even for medical persons in the Territories and the District of Columbia; in 1937 a
private clinic was closed in Massachusetts and the personnel subjected to criminal
prosecution (there was a similar occurrence in Connecticut) ; 45 states do not give the
birth control movement the active support it needs to be really effective.
®^E. Mae McCarroll, “A Report on the Two-Year Negro Demonstration Health
Program of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.” A talk delivered at
the annual convention of the National Medical Association, Cleveland, August 17, 1942.
Of the 803 birth control centers, 225 were located in hospitals, 265 in health depart-
ment quarters, and 3 1 3 in settlement houses, churches and similar institutions.
The only three states with birth control officially incorporated into the general
public health program—^North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama—^are in the
South. Several other Southern states are expected to join this group shortly, but no
Northern ones. By July, 1942, there were, in the United States, 345 contraceptive
centers deriving all or part of their support from taxes. North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Alabama had 47 per cent of these. Over 24 per cent more were found in 1 3 other
Southern states (among Southern states only Louisiana and Mississippi had none).
Twenty-one Northern and Western states had the remaining 29 per cent (almost half

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