Latest / Margaret Sanger; an autobiography / 40 - Margaret Sanger; an autobiography by Margaret Sanger

Transcript

40 - Margaret Sanger; an autobiography by Margaret Sanger · Margaret Sanger; an autobiography

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three of Margaret Sanger by Margaret Sanger. This
0:06
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter thirty three
0:12
Speaker 1: Old Father Antik the Law Between fifth and sixth Avenues,
0:19
Speaker 1: practically in the shadow of the gray mass of Saint
0:23
Speaker 1: Francis Xavier's College, was a shabby brownstone building number forty
0:29
Speaker 1: six West fifteenth Street. After two years of gathering statistical
0:35
Speaker 1: histories at one O four Fifth Avenue, we decided in
0:39
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five the time had come to expand and
0:43
Speaker 1: moved to this second home of the Clinical Research Bureau.
0:48
Speaker 1: It was next to an express agency, three steps down
0:52
Speaker 1: from the street, which was generally lined with trucks, since
0:56
Speaker 1: the section was thick with lofts, factories and wishouses, not
1:01
Speaker 1: particularly attractive but inexpensive, And we had a happy Irish
1:06
Speaker 1: landlord who helped convert the English basement into offices and
1:11
Speaker 1: reception rooms. The clinic was a neighborly place where mothers
1:16
Speaker 1: could congregate. We tried to keep it home like so
1:20
Speaker 1: that they would not feel an atmosphere of sickness or disease.
1:25
Speaker 1: The patients were accorded just as much consideration as a
1:29
Speaker 1: business house gave its clients, and not as in many
1:33
Speaker 1: doctors ante rooms, made to wait indefinitely. They were usually
1:38
Speaker 1: nervous enough anyhow without having to endure added suspense. Moreover,
1:45
Speaker 1: they had husbands and children to feed and care for,
1:49
Speaker 1: and every hour was precious to them. As they increased,
1:53
Speaker 1: staff increased. Two physicians were always on hand. We shortly
1:59
Speaker 1: included the first floor and finally occupied the three. About
2:04
Speaker 1: a year before we had changed our location, Lord Buckmaster
2:09
Speaker 1: had introduced in the August House of Lords the memorable
2:13
Speaker 1: resolution which we had discussed when I had been last
2:17
Speaker 1: in England. Rarely had such an eloquent voice been lifted
2:22
Speaker 1: for our cause. I would appeal on behalf of the
2:26
Speaker 1: woman upon whose bare backs falls the untempered lash of
2:32
Speaker 1: the primeval curse, declaring that in sorrow thou shalt bring
2:37
Speaker 1: forth children, the woman with the pride and glory of
2:40
Speaker 1: their life broken and discrowned, and the flower of motherhood
2:45
Speaker 1: turned into nothing but decaying weeds. And on behalf of
2:50
Speaker 1: the children who are thrust into this world unwonted, unwelcomed, uncherished, unsustained,
2:58
Speaker 1: the children who do not bring trailing behind them clouds
3:02
Speaker 1: of glory, but the taint of inherited disease, and over
3:06
Speaker 1: whose heads there may hover forever the haunting horror of
3:11
Speaker 1: inherited madness. On behalf of them all, I would appeal, and,
3:16
Speaker 1: as men who believe in the great future of our race,
3:20
Speaker 1: I beg of you. I earnestly entreat you to support
3:24
Speaker 1: the motion that I seek to move. It is said
3:29
Speaker 1: that these women whom we seek to benefit are so indolent,
3:33
Speaker 1: so ignorant, so foolish, that they will not come for
3:37
Speaker 1: the information. It is not merely that they do come,
3:42
Speaker 1: But the people who make that statement do that which
3:45
Speaker 1: men so often do. They overlook the woman side of
3:49
Speaker 1: the question. What to a man may be of mere triviality,
3:55
Speaker 1: and act between a sleep and asleep and forgotten in
3:58
Speaker 1: a moment, may bring to the woman the terror of
4:02
Speaker 1: consequences that we cannot measure, of months of sickness, misery,
4:08
Speaker 1: and ill health, ending with hours of agony that are
4:12
Speaker 1: not veiled under the cloak of chloroform's most merciful sleep.
4:17
Speaker 1: These are the people that we want to help. We too,
4:23
Speaker 1: were dedicated to help such women, and each day brought
4:27
Speaker 1: more to the doors of our clinic than we could
4:29
Speaker 1: provide instruction for from all over the country and of
4:34
Speaker 1: all classes. Some weeks, so many Italian women crowded in
4:40
Speaker 1: that we had to employ an interpreter. Then droves of
4:44
Speaker 1: Spanish or of Jewish arrived. Merely judging by the letters
4:50
Speaker 1: that had come to me, I was prepared to find
4:53
Speaker 1: many psychological problems presented. I often thought of the high
4:58
Speaker 1: cost of small famis emilyes for women who had more
5:02
Speaker 1: or less restricted their procreative powers through other means than contraception.
5:08
Speaker 1: Although the size was limited, it was frequently accompanied by
5:12
Speaker 1: marital unhappiness and hidden psychic disturbances. But the kindness of
5:18
Speaker 1: doctor Stone aided immeasurably in our informal court of domestic relations.
5:26
Speaker 1: One hot July day, when I was coming out of
5:29
Speaker 1: the clinic, I saw a woman obviously pregnant carrying a
5:34
Speaker 1: year and a half old baby, dragging another one only
5:38
Speaker 1: a trifle bigger, crying behind her. The little girl's shoes
5:43
Speaker 1: were too short and were pinching her toes. I squirmed myself,
5:49
Speaker 1: remembering my own squeezed feet as a child. I caught
5:54
Speaker 1: up with her. Can't I carry one of the babies?
5:58
Speaker 1: This one seems tired? Which way are you going? Can
6:03
Speaker 1: you tell me where the jail is. The nearest one
6:07
Speaker 1: is on Spring Street. I think, no, there's a jail
6:12
Speaker 1: somewheres around here. Didn't you get the address? Yes, but
6:18
Speaker 1: I left it on the table. What do you want
6:22
Speaker 1: a jail for? My man's there? What for leaving me?
6:29
Speaker 1: He always does this when I get like this. How
6:33
Speaker 1: many children have you nine? How often has he left you?
6:40
Speaker 1: This is the fourth time. Now do you want any
6:44
Speaker 1: more children? No? Emphatically. Did you ever know there was
6:51
Speaker 1: a way to stop having so many? She almost dropped
6:55
Speaker 1: the infant, took hold of me and said, they won't
6:59
Speaker 1: give it to me. I'm asking everybody. They'll only give
7:03
Speaker 1: it to the rich. He wants it. He'll even have
7:06
Speaker 1: an operation, but nobody'll tell us. I wrote down our
7:12
Speaker 1: street and number and said, you go back to that
7:15
Speaker 1: place where I met you, and the doctor there will
7:18
Speaker 1: tell you about it. The next day I was called
7:23
Speaker 1: up unofficially by a social worker, one of those who
7:27
Speaker 1: used to send us cases on their own initiative. She
7:31
Speaker 1: wished to explain to me the husband would be led
7:35
Speaker 1: off if he promised to live with his family and
7:37
Speaker 1: support them. Otherwise he had to serve a sentence. His
7:43
Speaker 1: wife had seen him and shown him my note. He
7:46
Speaker 1: had said he would rather go to the island for
7:49
Speaker 1: three years than come out unless we could not only
7:53
Speaker 1: guarantee his getting the information, but furthermore that it would work.
7:58
Speaker 1: He was fed up with having a new baby every year.
8:03
Speaker 1: We suggested he talk it over with us and bring
8:06
Speaker 1: his wife. She was silent, glum, did not appear to
8:11
Speaker 1: know what it was all about. He was discouraged and doubtful.
8:17
Speaker 1: We gave him the information and he departed. I'm the
8:22
Speaker 1: one to do this, she won't, glaring at his wife,
8:26
Speaker 1: who tagged on behind him. We hoped for the best.
8:31
Speaker 1: About half a year later, both returned for the checkup,
8:35
Speaker 1: she with her hand on his arm. This vague, dumb,
8:40
Speaker 1: immobile woman was now in spruce jacket and skirt, head up,
8:45
Speaker 1: stepping lightly. You would never have known her for the
8:49
Speaker 1: same person. The two were off to the movies together.
8:55
Speaker 1: Few social workers were understanding enough to smooth the lives
8:58
Speaker 1: of people in such a difficulties. One agency was told
9:03
Speaker 1: by a doctor that a certain family on its rolls
9:06
Speaker 1: must not increase. The mother had already borne four babies
9:11
Speaker 1: and had a bad heart. A visiting nurse relaid this
9:15
Speaker 1: to the husband one Sunday morning when he was home
9:18
Speaker 1: from work, if your wife becomes pregnant again, you'll be
9:23
Speaker 1: a murderer. He was frightened. I don't want to kill her.
9:29
Speaker 1: What shall I do? Sleep alone? The husband's disposition began
9:36
Speaker 1: to change. He became gloomy, would not talk to his wife,
9:42
Speaker 1: was ugly in sudden tempers, slapped, shouted at, and even
9:46
Speaker 1: kicked the children. Rushed into the house to eat his meals,
9:50
Speaker 1: and then out again, not retreating to his own bed
9:55
Speaker 1: until after she was in hers, which had been made
9:57
Speaker 1: up in the kitchen where it was warm. She was
10:01
Speaker 1: so unhappy over the metamorphosis that she made tentative approaches,
10:07
Speaker 1: whereupon he beat her and ran into the street. The
10:11
Speaker 1: next day, she marched to the nurse's settlement to tell
10:14
Speaker 1: them what she thought of them. If all you can
10:18
Speaker 1: do is keep my husband from me, stay away. I'd
10:22
Speaker 1: rather be dead than live like this. The case was
10:26
Speaker 1: taken to a physician, who sensibly warned, you can't separate
10:31
Speaker 1: people by such barriers. That's not the answer. Then she
10:36
Speaker 1: was sent to us. After she had been instructed, the
10:40
Speaker 1: tension lessened, and the domestic situation was remedied in another
10:46
Speaker 1: family of six children. The husband, part Italian and part
10:51
Speaker 1: some other nationality, was affectionate and irresponsible. Every time he
10:57
Speaker 1: walked in the door, wreathed in smiles, his wife greeted
11:01
Speaker 1: him with frowns and scowls. She threw dishes and pots
11:05
Speaker 1: at him. He thought she was crazy and asked to
11:09
Speaker 1: have her committed. A psychiatrist talked to her and found
11:13
Speaker 1: she was in deadly fear of being pregnant again. When
11:18
Speaker 1: we saw her, she really appeared to be demented. One
11:22
Speaker 1: forenoon six months later, as I passed through the waiting room,
11:27
Speaker 1: the nurse at the desk tendered her usual good morning,
11:30
Speaker 1: missus Sanger. Immediately, a neat trim woman came over to me.
11:37
Speaker 1: Look at me, she beamed, you don't know me. I
11:42
Speaker 1: was the one who sat there, and they said I
11:44
Speaker 1: was crazy. I don't look crazy now, do I? And
11:48
Speaker 1: I wasn't crazy then, just worried to death. For four years,
11:55
Speaker 1: we went along in the clinic, working steadily, straightening mental
11:59
Speaker 1: tanks and relieving physical distress when we could. Then, early
12:05
Speaker 1: in the morning of April fifteenth, nineteen twenty nine, the
12:09
Speaker 1: telephone in my apartment, rang, startling me. I was pretty nervous,
12:14
Speaker 1: having been up all night with Stuart, who had mastoiditis.
12:19
Speaker 1: His temperature was running high and he was suffering with terrible,
12:23
Speaker 1: indescribable pain. I took off the receiver, HULLO, this is Anna.
12:32
Speaker 1: The police are here at the clinic. Briefly, she related
12:36
Speaker 1: how they had descended without warning, stamped into the basement,
12:41
Speaker 1: and were at that moment tearing things to pieces. With
12:46
Speaker 1: this meager information pounding through my brain, I hastened to
12:50
Speaker 1: the street, hailed the taxi, and urged the driver to
12:55
Speaker 1: go as fast as he could to West fifteenth Street.
12:59
Speaker 1: The shade to the glass door was pulled down. The
13:03
Speaker 1: door itself was locked. I knocked, and a plain closed
13:07
Speaker 1: man of the vice squad opened it. Well, who are you?
13:13
Speaker 1: I miss a sanger, and I want to come in.
13:17
Speaker 1: My request was passed on to a superior, and I
13:20
Speaker 1: heard someone answer. Let her in. Inside. In a room
13:26
Speaker 1: more than ordinarily small, because partitions had sliced it up
13:30
Speaker 1: to make minute consultation booths, the patients were sitting quietly,
13:36
Speaker 1: some of them weeping. Detectives were hurrying aimlessly here and
13:41
Speaker 1: there like chickens. Fluttering about a raided roost, calling to
13:46
Speaker 1: each other, and amid the confusion, demanding names and addresses.
13:52
Speaker 1: The three nurses were standing around Doctor Elizabeth Pisuert was
13:57
Speaker 1: practically in hysterics. Doctor Stone was aloof, utterly unmoved by
14:03
Speaker 1: the tumult and the noise. I've always admired her attitude.
14:09
Speaker 1: This was the first time in her life she had
14:11
Speaker 1: been arrested, yet she treated it so lightly. Isn't this fantastic?
14:18
Speaker 1: She remarked. Only a few moments ago, a visiting physician
14:23
Speaker 1: from the Middle West asked one of the nurses whether
14:26
Speaker 1: we ever had any police interference. Oh no, the nurse
14:30
Speaker 1: cheerfully replied, Those days are over stocky. Missus Mary Sullivan,
14:37
Speaker 1: head of the city Policewoman's Bureau, was superintending the raid
14:42
Speaker 1: in person. Her round, thick set face might have been
14:47
Speaker 1: genial when smiling, but was very terrifying when flushed with anger.
14:52
Speaker 1: She was giving orders to her minions in such rapid
14:56
Speaker 1: succession that it seemed impossible to keep pace with them.
15:00
Speaker 1: I tried to talk to her, asking why she had
15:03
Speaker 1: come and what it was all about. You'll see, said
15:08
Speaker 1: missus Sullivan, and went on directing the patrolmen who were
15:12
Speaker 1: removing books from shelves, pictures and diagrams from walls, and
15:17
Speaker 1: sweeping out the contents of medical cabinets. In their zeal,
15:22
Speaker 1: I noticed they were seizing articles from the sterilizers, such
15:25
Speaker 1: as gloves and medicine droppers, having no sinister significance whatsoever.
15:32
Speaker 1: They were also gathering up the various strange, weird devices
15:36
Speaker 1: patients had brought us to inquire as to their efficacy,
15:41
Speaker 1: and which we exhibited as curios. Patrol Woman Anna Macnamara,
15:48
Speaker 1: far less assured than her chief, was consulting a list
15:51
Speaker 1: in her hand and turning over the case histories in
15:54
Speaker 1: the files as swiftly as her fingers could move. Many
15:59
Speaker 1: of these contained the personal confessions of women, some of
16:03
Speaker 1: whom had entrusted us with the knowledge that their husbands
16:07
Speaker 1: had venereal disease or insanity. It ran through my mind
16:13
Speaker 1: that dire misfortune could follow in the way of being
16:16
Speaker 1: blackmailed by anyone obtaining the records. I requested missus Sullivan
16:22
Speaker 1: to show me her search warrant, and saw it had
16:26
Speaker 1: been signed by Chief Magistrate Mackadoo. Nevertheless, I cautioned her,
16:32
Speaker 1: you have no right to touch those files. Not even the
16:36
Speaker 1: nurses ever see them. They are the private property of
16:39
Speaker 1: the doctors, and if you take them, you'll get in trouble. Trouble,
16:46
Speaker 1: she snapped back, I get into trouble. What about the
16:50
Speaker 1: trouble you're in. I wouldn't change mine for yours. Well,
16:58
Speaker 1: this is my party, you keep out. One of the
17:03
Speaker 1: policemen scooped up all the name cards and stuffed them
17:06
Speaker 1: into a waste basket to be carried off as evidence.
17:11
Speaker 1: This was a prime violation of medical ethics. Nothing was
17:15
Speaker 1: more sacred to a doctor than the confidences of his patients. Immediately,
17:21
Speaker 1: Anna telephoned doctor Robert L. Dickinson at the Academy of
17:26
Speaker 1: Medicine that the police were confiscating the case histories of patients,
17:31
Speaker 1: and asked him to recommend a lawyer. He suggested Morris L. Ernst,
17:37
Speaker 1: whom Anna then called. Doctors, nurses and evidence were being
17:43
Speaker 1: hustled into the street. The patrol wagon had arrived, but
17:48
Speaker 1: I summoned to taxi cabs, in which we rode to
17:51
Speaker 1: the West twentieth Street station. On the way, I heard
17:56
Speaker 1: part of the story which accounted for my non arrest
18:00
Speaker 1: about three weeks earlier, a woman who had registered under
18:05
Speaker 1: the name of Missus Tierney, had come for contraceptive advice,
18:09
Speaker 1: and on examination was found by both doctors to have
18:13
Speaker 1: rectocle cystocile prolapsis of the uterus, erosions and retroversion. Although
18:22
Speaker 1: not informed of her exact condition, she was instructed because
18:27
Speaker 1: another pregnancy would be dangerous and told her return for
18:30
Speaker 1: a checkup. She had now done so under her rightful
18:34
Speaker 1: name of Macnamara, including in her entourage Missus Sullivan and
18:40
Speaker 1: a police squad Doctor Stone, doctor Pisuart and the three
18:47
Speaker 1: nurses were booked for violation of Section one one four
18:51
Speaker 1: to two, though I attempted to explain the clinic had
18:55
Speaker 1: been active for six years quite legally under the Exceptiontion
19:00
Speaker 1: one one four five. At Jefferson Market Court, to which
19:05
Speaker 1: we next traveled, Magistrate Rosenbluth looked over the warrant and
19:10
Speaker 1: ordered a three hundred dollars bond for each. The succeeding morning,
19:16
Speaker 1: I sent Stuart to a hospital for treatment. I had
19:20
Speaker 1: to attend a meeting in Boston, and the day after
19:23
Speaker 1: that go to Chicago for a series of lectures. Again
19:27
Speaker 1: I was obliged to leave him, and this time with
19:31
Speaker 1: even more misgivings. At Buffalo, came a telegram saying a
19:36
Speaker 1: mastoid operation had been performed at Chicago. I telephoned the
19:41
Speaker 1: doctor and was reassured. The moment my duties were over,
19:46
Speaker 1: I hurried back to be with him, and incidentally, to
19:49
Speaker 1: attend the hearings. I still had no idea of the
19:54
Speaker 1: fate of the case histories, and had been very worried.
19:58
Speaker 1: Now I learned that the evening after the raid, Magistrate
20:02
Speaker 1: Mackadoo had been dining with doctor Carl Ryland, my husband's pastor.
20:08
Speaker 1: Doctor Ryland, much upset, had remarked upon its outrageousness. Justice Mackadoo,
20:16
Speaker 1: aghast and horrified to find that without reading it, he
20:21
Speaker 1: had signed this warrant, just one of the many laid
20:25
Speaker 1: on his desk, had called up the police station without delay,
20:29
Speaker 1: saying that all the twenty four histories must be put
20:33
Speaker 1: in his safe and kept there until he arrived in
20:36
Speaker 1: the morning. He had perceived instantly that those doctor's records
20:41
Speaker 1: were going to be a serious embarrassment. One hundred and
20:46
Speaker 1: fifty cards, our sole memoranda of names and addresses, were
20:50
Speaker 1: never restored. Catholic patients whose records had thus been purloined,
20:56
Speaker 1: received mysterious and anonymous telephone calls warning them if they
21:01
Speaker 1: continued to go to the clinic, their private lives would
21:04
Speaker 1: be exposed. They came to us asking fearfully, will I
21:09
Speaker 1: get in the papers? Immediately after the raid, various doctors
21:16
Speaker 1: volunteered to go on the stand and testify as to
21:20
Speaker 1: the medical principles involved. The New York County Medical Society
21:25
Speaker 1: was aroused and passed a resolution protesting against the seizure.
21:31
Speaker 1: Through doctor Dickinson's foresightedness and energetic interest, the Academy of
21:37
Speaker 1: Medicine held a special meeting which resolved, we view with
21:42
Speaker 1: grave concern any action on the part of the authorities
21:46
Speaker 1: which contravenes the inviolability of the confidential relations which always
21:53
Speaker 1: have and should obtain between physicians and their patients. Police
21:59
Speaker 1: Commission in Our Grover A. Whalen then embroiled in a mortifying,
22:04
Speaker 1: futile investigation of the murder of Arnold Rothstein. The gambler
22:09
Speaker 1: had termed the raid a routine matter, but when doctor
22:14
Speaker 1: Linsley Williams, director of the Academy, wrote a letter of protest,
22:19
Speaker 1: he decided it might not have been so routine as
22:22
Speaker 1: it had appeared and apologized, but what had caused the
22:27
Speaker 1: raid in the first place. I employed the Burns Detective
22:32
Speaker 1: Agency to sift the affair. Approximately fifty percent of our
22:37
Speaker 1: cases were being sent by social workers on the lower
22:41
Speaker 1: East and West Sides, a conglomerate of all peoples and classes,
22:47
Speaker 1: including Irish, Italians and other Catholics. So many had benefited
22:53
Speaker 1: and told their neighbors that others also were asking of
22:57
Speaker 1: their agencies how to get to our clinic. Catholic social
23:01
Speaker 1: workers at a monthly meeting with officials of the church
23:05
Speaker 1: had sought guidance in replying to parishioners, and the ecclesiastics
23:10
Speaker 1: had been shocked to find that a clinic existed. Catholic
23:15
Speaker 1: policewomen had been summoned. Mary Sullivan had been chosen to
23:19
Speaker 1: wipe out the Clinical Research Bureau, and Missus macnamara selected
23:25
Speaker 1: for the decoy. Morris Ernst, who had accepted our case,
23:31
Speaker 1: had already won a reputation for his espousal of liberal causes.
23:36
Speaker 1: It was most encouraging to discover a lawyer who was
23:40
Speaker 1: as convinced as we that the principle of the law
23:44
Speaker 1: was the important issue. Although he seemed very young, The
23:48
Speaker 1: moment I talked with him, I recognized here was a
23:51
Speaker 1: person for us. He was a good psychologist as well
23:56
Speaker 1: as a good lawyer. He tried to bring everything out,
24:00
Speaker 1: but wanted the evidence correct and the minds of the
24:03
Speaker 1: witnesses straight as to what had happened. On April twenty first,
24:09
Speaker 1: when Magistrate Rosenblooth called the case, the attitude in the
24:13
Speaker 1: court room was far different from anything exhibited at previous
24:18
Speaker 1: birth control hearings. Only one witness was heard that day,
24:22
Speaker 1: Missus macnamara. In spite of the hostility of Assistant District
24:27
Speaker 1: Attorney Hogan, which was to be expected, and in spite
24:31
Speaker 1: of the magistrate's prompting that she was a policewoman and
24:35
Speaker 1: not required to tell all, Missus Macnamara was made to
24:39
Speaker 1: confess she had set out deliberately to deceive the clinic doctors.
24:45
Speaker 1: As she testified under mister Ernst cross examination what she
24:49
Speaker 1: had done, her stolid face turned from pink to purple.
24:55
Speaker 1: On her first visit, she had learned the routine, and
24:58
Speaker 1: on her second, being left alone, had copied down the
25:02
Speaker 1: number of every name card lying on doctor Stone's desk.
25:08
Speaker 1: Murmurs rose among the spectators, a melodious sound to ears
25:13
Speaker 1: still echoing with the harsh and suspicious accents of a
25:17
Speaker 1: mere twelve years before. After forty minutes, Magistrate Rosenbluth adjourned
25:24
Speaker 1: the hearing over our protests. If the object had been
25:28
Speaker 1: to secure a quieter and less sympathetic audience the ensuing day,
25:33
Speaker 1: it failed. Now physicians took the stand doctor Dickinson, doctor
25:39
Speaker 1: Frederick C. Holden, doctor Foster Kennedy, the neurologist. The climax
25:46
Speaker 1: came when mister Hogan asked doctor Lewis T. Harris, former
25:51
Speaker 1: Commissioner of Health of New York City, whether he had
25:55
Speaker 1: ever given any information to a patient regardless of marriage certificate.
26:01
Speaker 1: Doctor Harris answered, the birth control clinic is a public
26:06
Speaker 1: health work. Every woman desiring treatment is asked whether she
26:10
Speaker 1: is married. Don't they have to bring their marriage certificates
26:15
Speaker 1: with them? No, the magistrate leaned forward ponderously and heavily.
26:23
Speaker 1: Does not the clinic send out social workers to discover
26:27
Speaker 1: the truth of patient's statements. Mister Ernst interpolated, did you
26:35
Speaker 1: ever know of a situation where a doctor dispatched a
26:39
Speaker 1: detective to find out whether his patient were married? Loud
26:44
Speaker 1: laughter came from the listeners. Judge Rosenblooth pounded his gavel.
26:50
Speaker 1: Unless there is absolute silence, I shall clear the courtroom. Then,
26:55
Speaker 1: seeming to grow more angry, he added, on second thought,
27:00
Speaker 1: I shall clear it anyhow, out you go. The joke
27:05
Speaker 1: was on him. It was the doctors who had laughed
27:08
Speaker 1: the loudest, and their presence as witnesses could not be
27:12
Speaker 1: dispensed with. Following a fifteen minute recess, the audience was
27:17
Speaker 1: once again in the room, more partisan than ever. Young
27:22
Speaker 1: mister Hogan tried to be dramatic, but he failed before
27:26
Speaker 1: our attorney's cold, uncompromising logic. He took up one of
27:32
Speaker 1: the pessaries that had been appropriated in the raid and addressed,
27:36
Speaker 1: doctor Harris, you know that the laws of New York
27:40
Speaker 1: State or that contraception may be given only for the
27:44
Speaker 1: cure or prevention of disease. Do you dare to claim
27:48
Speaker 1: this article will cure tuberculosis? Will a cure cancer? High
27:53
Speaker 1: blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease? Again came mirth. No
28:00
Speaker 1: one assumed a pessary or any other form of contraceptive
28:04
Speaker 1: could effect a cure, but replied doctor Harris, in preventing conception,
28:12
Speaker 1: it may be said to cure, because pregnancy can often
28:16
Speaker 1: be the cause of furthering the progress of a disease.
28:21
Speaker 1: A month later, the defendants were discharged, Magistrate Rosenbluoth, writing
28:26
Speaker 1: an admirably lucid, fair and definite decision. Good faith in
28:33
Speaker 1: these circumstances is the belief of the physician that the
28:37
Speaker 1: prevention of conception is necessary for a patience, health and
28:42
Speaker 1: physical welfare. Missus Sullivan was temporarily demoted. She continued, however,
28:50
Speaker 1: to be paid the same salary as before, and was
28:53
Speaker 1: eventually restored to rank. It was an ill wind that
28:59
Speaker 1: did not blow some good. After this, our calendars were
29:03
Speaker 1: filled three weeks in advance, and we had to add
29:07
Speaker 1: two evenings a week to the daily routine. To our amazement.
29:12
Speaker 1: Among the many patients there appeared one afternoon Missus McNamara,
29:18
Speaker 1: who had first heard in court of her five ailments,
29:22
Speaker 1: every one of which legally entitled her to contraceptive information.
29:28
Speaker 1: She had come back to ask Doctor Stone whether she
29:31
Speaker 1: really had so many things the matter with her, and
29:34
Speaker 1: was assured the diagnosis was correct. The raid had been
29:40
Speaker 1: one of the worst errors committed by the opposition because
29:43
Speaker 1: it had touched the doctors in a most sensitive spot,
29:47
Speaker 1: the sanctity of records, and they were obliged to stand
29:51
Speaker 1: by us, whether they wanted to or not. Even so,
29:56
Speaker 1: we were not yet certain that the question had been
29:59
Speaker 1: settled for all time. At any moment, our Irish landlord
30:04
Speaker 1: might receive orders from his bishop to eject us. To
30:08
Speaker 1: avoid any such contingency, and to take care of the
30:12
Speaker 1: increasing numbers. In nineteen thirty we bought a house of
30:16
Speaker 1: our own at seventeen West sixteenth Street. Our new building
30:23
Speaker 1: gave us not only more room for patients, but better
30:26
Speaker 1: opportunities for research. It was a sad commentary that though
30:31
Speaker 1: medicine had evolved into the preventive state, where it was
30:35
Speaker 1: causing a revolution in sanitation and health education, contraceptive technique
30:41
Speaker 1: had been little advanced since the days of Mensinga. However,
30:48
Speaker 1: research was going on in various lands under the most
30:52
Speaker 1: diverse conditions. A modern clinic had started up again in
30:56
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, a memorial to alte Ja Jacobs and bearing
31:01
Speaker 1: her name. It was based on the old Rutgers standards
31:06
Speaker 1: which had lapsed for so long America and England. As
31:11
Speaker 1: the consequence of guiding the movement along professional lines and
31:15
Speaker 1: putting emphasis on the keeping of records had made the
31:18
Speaker 1: greatest strides, but all accomplishments needed to be correlated, coordinated,
31:26
Speaker 1: unified in a scientific conference. Zurich was a central location
31:32
Speaker 1: for many countries, and in addition offered beautiful scenery in abundance.
31:38
Speaker 1: It was a pleasant place to be. September first, nineteen thirty,
31:43
Speaker 1: some one hundred and thirty physicians and directors of clinics
31:47
Speaker 1: from different parts of the world began comparing notes and
31:51
Speaker 1: reporting progress. Only the present generation was behind the times.
31:57
Speaker 1: A representative from the Netherlands one day stood up, a
32:01
Speaker 1: rather youthful person, and said, I am glad to announce
32:06
Speaker 1: that at last, we in the Netherlands have also a
32:09
Speaker 1: birth control clinic. This was extraordinary in view of the
32:14
Speaker 1: fact that the Netherlands had been the pioneer country and
32:18
Speaker 1: had inspired us all. Even more recently, I encountered a
32:23
Speaker 1: young matron, a member of the American Birth Control League
32:28
Speaker 1: and head of the state organization in New Jersey, who
32:32
Speaker 1: had again utterly disassociated herself from history. She urged missus Sanger,
32:39
Speaker 1: can't we convert you to the establishment of clinics. You
32:43
Speaker 1: know they're going there being established all over the country.
32:50
Speaker 1: When were you born? Was all I could gasp. These
32:54
Speaker 1: two women epitomized a day which had not studied what
32:57
Speaker 1: had gone before. If new to their minds, then it
33:02
Speaker 1: was new in contrast to Geneva and its problems. Intact,
33:08
Speaker 1: Zurich was a dovecote. One slight incident alone disturbed the calm.
33:15
Speaker 1: I had gone to Berlin to secure delegates, and there,
33:19
Speaker 1: in a public theater, had seen a film which had
33:22
Speaker 1: traversed the length and breadth of Germany as propaganda for
33:26
Speaker 1: abortion under safe conditions. The scene opened with feet endlessly
33:32
Speaker 1: passing on the streets. You saw a kerchief drop, A
33:37
Speaker 1: masculine hand reached down to pick it up. The boy
33:41
Speaker 1: and girl at lunch, she looking up at him wide eyed.
33:45
Speaker 1: Soon she was obliged to go to a femme savant
33:50
Speaker 1: in a filthy, narrow old alley. You watched her ascend
33:54
Speaker 1: the rickety stairs, an ancient crone, peeling potatoes, shoving wood
34:00
Speaker 1: in the stove with dirty hands, the agony in the
34:03
Speaker 1: girl's face. It was a succession of pictures such as this,
34:08
Speaker 1: straight out of life itself. I had borrowed the film
34:13
Speaker 1: and rented a theater in Geneva. To my great surprise
34:17
Speaker 1: and no little amusement, when the Cesarean section appeared on
34:21
Speaker 1: the screen, several men and women in the audience began
34:26
Speaker 1: to faint, among them our own workers, even Edith Howe Martin, one,
34:32
Speaker 1: a young scientist, had to be let out and given
34:36
Speaker 1: a drink to brace him up. Cars and taxis were
34:40
Speaker 1: commandeered to cart the squeamish back to their hotels. This
34:46
Speaker 1: conference must remain a milestone, because there all propaganda, all
34:52
Speaker 1: moral and ethical aspects of the subject were forgotten. The
34:56
Speaker 1: whole problem was lifted out of the troubled atmosphere of theory,
35:01
Speaker 1: where previously it had been battered by the winds of
35:04
Speaker 1: doctrine and the brutal gusts of prejudice, into the current
35:09
Speaker 1: of serene impersonal scientific abstraction. It was too early to
35:15
Speaker 1: tell what practical results might ensue, but at least we
35:20
Speaker 1: soon received the assurance that certain doctors would welcome efficient contraceptives.
35:27
Speaker 1: Individual physicians in New York had since nineteen twenty three
35:32
Speaker 1: taken serious thought of the need for contraception. Missus Amos
35:37
Speaker 1: Pinchott had organized certain outstanding members of the Academy of
35:42
Speaker 1: Medicine into the Committee on Maternal Health. They had been
35:47
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to secure the well known retired gnecologist, doctor
35:52
Speaker 1: Dickinson as secretary. He had trained many of the younger
35:57
Speaker 1: men and was able to bring into the movement and
36:00
Speaker 1: doctors who would have paid slight attention to any one
36:03
Speaker 1: less admired and honored. With the aid of various foundations,
36:08
Speaker 1: the Committee on Maternal Health had been doing a fine
36:12
Speaker 1: piece of work in publishing the findings of scientists in
36:16
Speaker 1: brochures and pamphlets. The Academy, after the Zurich Conference, formally
36:24
Speaker 1: declared that the public is entitled to expect counsel and
36:28
Speaker 1: information by the medical profession on the important and intimate
36:33
Speaker 1: matter of contraceptive advice. We had been attaining small victories,
36:40
Speaker 1: and little by little, and bit by bit, the Protestant
36:44
Speaker 1: churches had begun to regard us favorably. In September nineteen
36:49
Speaker 1: twenty five, the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
36:54
Speaker 1: meeting at Portland, Oregon, had gone on record against birth control. Later,
37:01
Speaker 1: some of the wives of these same bishops had come
37:03
Speaker 1: to me in New York and asked my help in
37:06
Speaker 1: educating their husbands, a group of three had taken it
37:11
Speaker 1: upon themselves to see that every bishop was thoroughly enlightened.
37:16
Speaker 1: The consequence of the campaign was that at a subsequent
37:20
Speaker 1: meeting in nineteen thirty four, they reversed their original stand.
37:26
Speaker 1: Even the Jews had on occasion been in opposition. Rabbi
37:31
Speaker 1: Mishkind of Tremont Temple had been rebuked by his board
37:36
Speaker 1: of trustees for having invited me to speak one Sunday morning.
37:41
Speaker 1: Rather than surrender, he had resigned and found another synagogue
37:46
Speaker 1: in which I could appear. Now, the Central Conference of
37:51
Speaker 1: American Rabbis urged the recognition of birth control. The hundred
37:56
Speaker 1: and seventieth Conference of the Methodist Church sanctioned it, and
38:01
Speaker 1: the American Unitarian Association did the same. A special commission
38:07
Speaker 1: appointed by the Presbyterian General Assembly to study the problems
38:12
Speaker 1: of divorce and remarriage admitted the desirability of restricting births
38:18
Speaker 1: under medical advice, and in March nineteen thirty one, the
38:23
Speaker 1: Committee on Marriage and the Home of the Federal Council
38:26
Speaker 1: of the Churches of Christ in America approved it. Due
38:31
Speaker 1: in large measure to Lord Dawson's eloquence, the bishops at
38:36
Speaker 1: Lambeth gave us one of our greatest triumphs by voting
38:40
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety three to sixty seven in favor
38:44
Speaker 1: of birth control. Bernard Shaw believed the Church of England
38:48
Speaker 1: was making a belated attempt to see whether it could
38:52
Speaker 1: catch up with the twentieth century. Ever since the outburst
38:57
Speaker 1: of religious intolerance at town Hall, it had been apparent
39:01
Speaker 1: that in the United States, the Catholic hierarchy and officialdom
39:06
Speaker 1: were going to be the principal enemies of birth control.
39:10
Speaker 1: From city to city, you could feel this. At Albany
39:14
Speaker 1: we could not have a hall because the police commissioner
39:17
Speaker 1: was a Catholic. In Cincinnati, the Knights of Columbus almost
39:22
Speaker 1: succeeded in barring us from the hotel. At Syracuse, the
39:27
Speaker 1: mayor had to veto the ordinance of the Catholic Council
39:31
Speaker 1: before we could hold a conference there. When I was
39:35
Speaker 1: to give a lecture in Milwaukee, the Catholic Women's League
39:39
Speaker 1: came to protest the meeting. To Socialist Mayor Hone, he
39:44
Speaker 1: had told them, however, if I prevent Missus Sanger from
39:48
Speaker 1: speaking because you protest, I shall also have to prevent
39:52
Speaker 1: you from speaking. When others object to Catholic doctrine. Free
39:57
Speaker 1: speech must prevail in tactics aiming to bring about a
40:05
Speaker 1: reconciliation between the Anglicans and Rome had been rendered futile
40:10
Speaker 1: by the endorsement of the bishops. I suspected the demand
40:14
Speaker 1: for a clear statement from the Vatican on the question
40:18
Speaker 1: originated in the United States, where Catholic women were showing
40:22
Speaker 1: a gradual yet persistent spirit of independence. In spite of
40:28
Speaker 1: Church canons. They were using contraceptives, and the Church, in
40:33
Speaker 1: its wisdom, was obliged to change the law to keep
40:37
Speaker 1: its parishioners from breaking it. In December came the answer,
40:42
Speaker 1: in the form of a papal encyclical. The world moved,
40:48
Speaker 1: but the Pope sat still. He declared that he was
40:52
Speaker 1: looking with paternal eye, as from a watch tower. But
40:56
Speaker 1: what was he looking at. The Pope said over and
41:01
Speaker 1: over again that sexual intercourse, unless definitely designed to produce children,
41:08
Speaker 1: was against nature and a sin. He roundly condemned any contraceptive,
41:14
Speaker 1: and he affirmed that in the matter of limiting families,
41:18
Speaker 1: continence alone was permissible. Yet in the self same document
41:24
Speaker 1: he nullified his previous insistence that procreation was the sole
41:29
Speaker 1: justification of marital relations by countenancing them at times when
41:34
Speaker 1: pregnancy could not result. These times he made indefinite. They
41:40
Speaker 1: might refer to sterility, postmenopause, or the so called safe
41:46
Speaker 1: period during the menstrual cycle. In fine, he was saying
41:51
Speaker 1: first that you might not have intercourse unless you expected
41:55
Speaker 1: to have a child, and in the same breath that
41:58
Speaker 1: you might have intercourse when you could not possibly have
42:02
Speaker 1: a child. This jesuitical inconsistency allowed a loophole for the
42:09
Speaker 1: issuance of the Lat's foundation booklet entitled The Rhythm of
42:14
Speaker 1: Sterility and Fertility in Women, published with ecclesiastical approval and
42:20
Speaker 1: recommended by Catholic societies. It had become part of my
42:25
Speaker 1: routine to answer every challenge to the cause, just as
42:29
Speaker 1: I tried to answer every question at a meeting. Here
42:33
Speaker 1: again was the hoary nature argument, which should have been
42:38
Speaker 1: in its grave long since. The contention that it was
42:42
Speaker 1: sinned to interrupt nature in her processes was simple nonsense.
42:48
Speaker 1: The Pope frustrated her by shaving or having his hair
42:52
Speaker 1: cut whenever we caught a fish, or shot a wolf,
42:56
Speaker 1: or slaughtered a lamb. Whenever we pulled a weed or
43:00
Speaker 1: pruned a fruit tree, we too frustrated nature. Disease germs
43:06
Speaker 1: were perfectly natural little fellows which had to be frustrated
43:10
Speaker 1: before we could get well. As for the alleged safe
43:14
Speaker 1: period which rhythm now set forth, what could be more
43:19
Speaker 1: unnatural than to restrict intercourse to the very time when
43:23
Speaker 1: nature had least intended it. But taking one consideration with another,
43:30
Speaker 1: it seemed to me then that the birth control idea
43:33
Speaker 1: was rolling merrily along. I could sympathize with an indignant
43:39
Speaker 1: old radical who left a birth control Congress sniffing, this
43:43
Speaker 1: thing has got too darned safe for me. And of
43:49
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three