Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.
A major advance today in the fight for birth control, as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists officially endorsed giving contraceptive information to those who request it.
The national battle over birth control has been raging for half a century now, and it was said today that the long delay in the twelve year old group’s taking a stand was caused by the fact that so many ACOG members who are Catholic (presently about a quarter) opposed making birth control information available, and the other members didn’t feel strongly enough about the issue to push the resolution through until now.
Today, however, an endorsement not only passed, but apparently did so without dissent in the closed-door meeting. The group’s president, Dr. George E. Judd, of Los Angeles, said the “emotionalism” surrounding the issue in the past seems to have died down. So, times have clearly changed. Some ACOG members said after the vote that this resolution had been ridiculously delayed.
Long-time sex educator Dr. Mary Calderone expressed her delight at the resolution and said: “We have reached a turning point.” She referred not only to the ACOG resolution, but the National Academy of Sciences report on population published this week, and the fact that the Federal Government has just reversed its previous stand and will now give birth control information on request to those participating in foreign aid programs.
For many decades, both Federal law (the 1873 “Comstock Act”) and many state laws modeled on it which were passed soon afterward, classified birth control devices, as well as information about contraception as “obscene” materials with harsh criminal penalties for those who defied these bans. But hard work in the form of taking the case for birth control to the public in various forums, plus legislative lobbying and legal challenges have brought great changes.
In 1918, Judge Frederick Crane ruled that in New York State, an exception must be made to Section 1142 of the State Penal Code so that physicians could legally prescribe birth control to their married patients, though only if it was medically justified as necessary for the “cure and prevention of disease.” In 1936, Federal Judge Augustus Hand exempted physicians from the Comstock Act’s ban on contraceptive devices and birth control information.
Today, restrictions vary among the states, but only two – Massachusetts and Connecticut – still have absolute bans on birth control. Connecticut’s law is under challenge. Estelle Griswold and Dr. C. Lee Buxton opened a birth control clinic in New Haven in November, 1961, and were soon arrested and convicted of violating that state’s 1879 law. Their case is now on appeal, and a favorable ruling by the Supreme Court could end the battle over birth control by fully legalizing it nationwide.
The ACOG resolution reads:
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists believes scientific research should be greatly expanded on (a) all aspects of human fertility and (b) the interplay of psychologic, and socioeconomic factors influencing population changes; and that full freedom should be extended to all population groups for the selection and such use of methods for the regulation of family size as are consistent with the creed and mores of the individuals concerned.
