The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-01-04
BIRTH CONTROL
CLINICS WILL
BE ESTABLISHED
BY JOSEPHINE VAN DE GRIFT
NEA Service staff Writer

New York, Jan. 1.-'Within ten
cite no more comment than school
houses; charitable institutions will
largely have disappeared; and the
little short word fins will have
been written over the tragedy of,the
unwanted child"
Margaret Sanger, foremost pro-
ponent Of birth control, clad in a
frock of black, becomingly frilled
with white, bunch of violets at her
belt, thus jubilantly predicts flu
ture based upon the successful oper-
alton of the first birth control clinic
here.
For IL months, she reveals, the
the headquarters Of the American
Birth Control League, 1O4 Fifth ave-
nue., during which time it has given
contraceptive information to 900
women, turned away twice as many
more and answered $4,000 letters
from women in all parts of the coun-
try.
hcep W1tnlU the Law
And all, She says, within the spirit
and the letter Of the law. For in
keeping with a decision handed down
in 1918 by Judge Frederick E. Crane
of the Court of Appeals that "any
duly licensed physician could give
such information for the cure or pre-
vention of disease" the clinic was
put in charge of licensed physician,
DR.. Dorothy Booker, and has had the
cooperation of doctors, hospitals and
social workers.
| The operation of the clinic was
kept secret, not because of any fear
that it was illegal, explains Mrs.
Sanger, but in order that the project
might be given an unhampered trial.
And its results answer conclu-
sively," she maintains, "the claims, of
our opponents that the giving of
contraceptive information would in
crease immortality, that the poor
didn't want it and that others
wouldn't tolerate it.
81 have no knowledge of woman
of loose morals ever applying at the
clinic.
"The 900 women who were given
information were all married. Of
these 70 per cent wanted the intor-
nation because their families were
already larger than they could care
for and q per cent needed it for
health reasons.
zone day there came to me wo-
man to whom l had given contra
ceptive information back in 1916
when for brief ten days the first
American Birth Control clinic was
operating in Brooklyn, and for which
later went to Jail. She had five
children then, the family was poor
and she was in terror of adding to it
"She came to ME few months ago
smiling. By curtailing her family
she had been able to give better care
to her five children and was now
saving to send her eldest boy to
college.
Even the woman who would ordi.
narily be classed as high grade
moron is in favor of birth control
when once her social consciousness
is awakened"
Clinics Planned for Other Cities
. Mrs. Sanger does not fear the in.
reference of the law in her presen,
project.
, II do not see how the legality OF
the clinic can be questioned" sh.
says, ''as we have followed the let
ter of the law in every respect.
ALREADY our workers are planning
to open similar clinics in Chicago
and Milwaukee and within a few
years expect to see them in ever,
city and town Of the United States
1T isn't only the club Momen wht
want it. The women of the lowe,
classes are clamoring for it, as oul
} $4,000 pathetic, generally poorl,
spelled letters show.
1T has got to come, else the Unit
ed States will be like China. W,
may not feed our surplus children
to the crocodiles but diseases ant
vice are even worse monsters"