t
there are three answers which render this objection invalid. First,
many of the cases of failure are to be ascribed not to the
contraceptives themselves, but to their improper, careless and
unintelligent use. The best methods in the world will fail if used
improperly. Second, if the measures are efficient in 98 or 99 per
cent, and fail in one or two per cent., then they are a blessing. Some
women would be the happiest women in the world if they could render 98
per cent. of their conjugal relations unfruitful. Third, the
imperfections of our contraceptive measures are due to the secrecy
with which the entire subject must necessarily be surrounded. If the
subject of birth control could be fully discussed in medical books
there is no doubt that in a short time we would have measures that
would be absolutely certain and would leave nothing to be desired. But
even such as they are, the measures are better than none, and as said
in the beginning of this chapter, it is the duty of every young woman
to acquire as one of the items of her sex education the knowledge of
how to avoid too frequent pregnancies. In fact, I consider this the
most important item in a woman's sex education, and if she has learned
nothing else she should learn this. For this information is
_absolutely_ necessary to her future health and happiness.

=A Few Everyday Cases=

In my twenty years' work for the cause of rational birth control I
have come in contact with thousands and thousands of cases which
demonstrate in the most convincing manner possible the tragic results
of forced or undesired motherhood, and of the fear of forced or
undesired motherhood.

Some of the cases were in my own practice, some were related to me by
brother physicians, some were described to me by the victims living in
all parts of this vast country. Were I to collect and report all the
cases that came to my notice during those twenty years, they would
without exaggeration make a volume the size of the latest edition of
the Standard Dictionary, printed in the same small type. Some of them
are positively heartbreaking. They make you sick at the stupidity of
the human race, at the stupidity and brutality of the lawgivers. But I
do not wish to appeal to your emotions. I do not wish to take extreme
and unique cases. I will therefore briefly relate a few everyday
cases, which will demonstrate to you the beneficence of contraceptive
knowledge and the tragedy and misery caused by