St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-06-29
Implanted Births
Are Menace To
Negro Families

Mrs. Marie Schanks Key, National
Consultant on Work with Negroes
of the Planned Parenthood Fedora
tion of America, declared today.
A principal threat to the Negro
in America today, according to Mrs.
Key, is not that he and his wife will
fail to produce enough babies to re-
plenish the race but that the deaths
of mothers and children through
childbirth, illness and disease will
continue to depress the health and
social status of Negroes. Of equal
Importance is the correction of in
fertility among couples who want
children but are unable to have
them-a field in which planned
parenthood is endeavoring also to
aid.
"a sickly race is a weak race"
Mrs. Key declared. GAS long as
Negro mothers die in childbirth at
two and one-half times the rate of
white mothers, as long as Negro
babies are dying at twice the rate
of white babies, colored homes will
be the scene of misery and despair"
Greater understanding and prac-
tice of planned parenthood, through
the use of contraceptive methods
prescribed by doctors and clinics,
will mean that there will be more
strong and healthy children and
fewer defective and handicapped
babies unable to find useful or
happy place in life, Mrs. Key said.
Emphasizing that use of birth con-
troll by parents was but one step
in improving the total health of the
family, she urged Negroes to seek
and demand more adequate health
education and services of all kinds.
Mrs. Key cited Washington, the
nations capital, as an appealing
example of what remains to be done
in this respect. In that city in 1913,
the tuberculosis rate among. Ne
groes was 1887 as compared to
800 among whites. The rate for
syphilis among Negroes was 35.9
as compared with 7.3 among whites.
The rate for heart disease among
colored families was 327.5 as
against 274.1 among whites. The
Negro toll from nephritis was 1850
as compared to 1873 among whites.
Although Negro babies were born
at rate only slightly lower than
white babies, their deaths before
reaching age one were almost three
times as many. The rate of still
births was double the white rate.
while increased opportunity,
higher family income and better
housing will most certainly reduce
this appalling waste of human life
and health among Negro families,
thousands of lives could be saved
if Negro families had easy access
to good medical care and knew how
to prevent sickness and disease in
their own homes by the use of
reco gnized health measures.
Planned parenthood is one of those
measures and one of the most i'm
portant because child born weak
and i'll has two strikes against him
in his fight for a decent future and
place in the world"
In order that there should be no
misunderstanding of the meaning
and purposes of planned parent
hood, Mrs. Key cited these facts:
1. Planned parenthood does not
mean using contraceptives not to
have babies. 1t means using med
ically prescribed methods so that
each member of the family will
come into life in good health and
wanted by its parents. Years ago
the first emphasis of birth control
was on family limitation and still
is in advising those parents to
whom another child might mean
death of the mother or added
misery.
Since then, however, emphasis of
planned parenthood has shifted to
childspacing-a allowing each mother
needed rest and recuperation be-
tween each birth
2. Most recently, planne d
parenthood has come to include
treatment of infertility for childless
couples who want children but have
been unable to have them. Medical
services for treatment of infertil-
lty are still limited but planned
parenthood organizations are en-
couraging their establishment. In
January, 1915, the Planned Parent
hood Federation presented awards
to medical scientists who have been
studying the cases of involuntary
childlessness, including DR.. John
Macleod of Cornell Medical Col
lege. This work is of great i'm
portance to Negroes-because twice
as many Negro couples as white
couples are unable to have children.
3. Planned Parenthood is not
"quack medicine" but a widely ap-
proved health measure. Most doc
tors now believe in it and it has
been approved by both the Ameri-
can Medical Association and the
National Medical Association. It
also has the support of tho IT G