Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/239

The dwindling and then dying out of a race which is implied in the phrase "race suicide" does not depend, and, in my opinion, has never been caused by the use of contraceptives. Races are injured by other influences, for instance by the sterilizing and detrimental effects of syphilis and gonorrhœa, which are immensely more potent as race-destroyers than even the worst contraceptive measures used in the worst kind of way could ever be. And similarly abortifacients are immeasurably more detrimental to a race than the worst contraceptives. Nevertheless, arguments against contraception have been based on the assumption that the intelligent control of conception would lead to a smaller production of citizens and the ultimate reduction to extinction point of the race who made use of these scientific measures. Much has recently been made of the sad predicament of France, but it is not generally stated that since 1920 (see p. 361) contraception has been made criminal in France, and what she is suffering from today are abortions, and the sterility induced by venereal diseases and various abnormalities. From a national point of view statistics are of some value as an indication of what is taking place; but of less value than is