Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/116

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CONTRACEPTION

Nevertheless, it is now very actively advocated by clerics[1] and by clerically influenced medical practitioners, as in Lady Barrett's small book with its preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury.[2]

Comment.—The "safe period" may be used by individuals who are acquainted with the above facts, and who find that their own type is such that the "safe period" is suitable, but it should never be recommended in general. Even for those whom it appears to suit, I think the method a cold, calculating, pseudo-restraint which tends to debase the true sex relation, and reacts unfavourably on the character of both participating parties, and is, moreover, quite unnatural.

BY BOTH PARTIES.

(10) Mutual and Complete Abstention from the ⟨Marital⟩ Act.

Although this is a negative form of birth control, and consists in the absence of coitus, yet the physiological effects of this

  1. ↑ See Evidence in the First Report of the National Birth Rate Commission: "The Declining Birth Rate, its Causes and Effects." Pp. xiv, 450. London, 1917. See p. 64 et passim.
  2. ↑ Lady Barrett, M.D., 1922: "Conception Control and its Effects on the Individual and the Nation. With a Foreword by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury." Pp. 48. London, 1922.

90

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.