Birth Control

In Manhattan, last week, the American Birth Control League met to summarize accomplishments of 1927, to prophesy progress. Dr. James F. Cooper, medical adviser of the League reported that interest in contraception was waxing among doctors. Specifically, he told of the work of the birth control clinic in Manhattan, where 4,500 women last year were advised on birth control. Of these, 1,991 were new patients.

Said Dr. Henry Pratt Fairchild, social scientist, quoting the conclusions of the World Population Conference at Geneva last summer: "Migration alone is not a remedy for population difficulties, or the solution of overpopulation of a nation, unless it is coupled with knowledge and practice of birth control."

Appeals were made for funds to maintain a second clinic in Manhattan, to support of a birth control bill for New York State.

As everyone knows, the sturdiest opponents of birth control in the U. S. have been Catholics. Catholic women once were passive in the matter, leaving to prelates denunciations of the movement. Lately, however, the women have assumed active antagonism. Last week, when the New York council of the National Council of Catholic Women met in Manhattan, they voted: "To continue actively the protest against all legislative measures, whether in the nation or in the State, which would permit the dissemination of information resulting in birth control, and so undermining the sanctities of family life."