Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/230

false generalization that "all birth control methods are harmful."

I have on many occasions heard that generalization uttered with pompous assurance, and I have challenged the one who made it to state which methods and what was the harm, to which reference was being made. Almost without exception the mind of the objector was easily demonstrated to be in a hazy fog, possessing little or no knowledge of the details of actual methods, and a total incapacity to be explicit about the exact nature or the psychological or physiological reactions of any method which I introduced by name into the discussion. Nevertheless such arguments as the incorrect generalization in the opening paragraph have gone forth to the world as the pronouncements of "science" or "medical opinion."

A few other indications of the kind of loose talking and thinking on this subject which masquerade as serious opinion follow.

"In the vast majority of families where no restrictions or unnatural means are used and where mothers nurse their children for eight or nine months, children only come every two years." This statement by Lady