Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/231

Barrett, M.D., may be approximately true of middle class women of the type with limited fertility it is ridiculously untrue of the typical working women who really form the "vast majority" of our female population, most of whom have babies annually or are incessantly bringing on abortions. It has even been said by a distinguished authority that abortions and miscarriages are more numerous than live births in some towns.

"I have no doubt that prevention of maternity by artificial methods invariably produces physical, mental and I think moral harm to those who resort to it . . . I am sure it does harm to both if they both agree to it. The act is incomplete; it is not a spontaneous act; and if the act ceases before the proper crisis, as it were, the nervous system suffers enormously if the habit is continued for long. And the result often is that there is a great deal of congestion produced in the woman, at all events." This statement by Amand Routh, M.D., before the Birth Rate Commission in 1914 appears to be a weighty medical opinion against all "artificial" contraceptives. It is unqualified, and if read by those who know less than Dr. Routh about the subject will appear to be an argument "against all birth control methods"; but those who examine it care-