"A modern and humane civilization must control conception or sink into barbaric cruelty to individuals" - Marie Stopes

As a sexual revolutionary and a birth control pioneer Marie Stopes played an important role in the history of birth control. In 1918 she published her well known book Married Love, which got a lot of public attention and led to calls for help from readers. Because of those reactions, Stopes decided that a birth control campaign was necessary. That would become her most important legacy. It consisted of several actions. Together with her husband Humphrey Verdon Roe, she founded an organization called Campaign for Birth Control and Racial Progress. Next to that, the couple published The Birth Control News and Stopes also organized public meetings. Her campaign was political and had the support of influential people, such as Lady Constance Lytton. The central goal of all her actions was the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. Even though the greater part of the readers of Married Love were members of the upper and middle class, Stopes wanted to include all classes of society in her work. This can be exemplified by another important part of her legacy, namely the foundation of the first birth control clinic in the UK, since it was located in a poorer part of London. Later, she developed a network of regional clinics, modelled after the London clinic. To reach small towns, she drove horse-drawn caravan clinics. Stopes is considered a pioneer figure for birth control because her campaigns opened up new perspectives on the interwar feminist activity.

(Source: Clare Debenham, Marie Stopes’ Sexual Revolution and the Birth Control Movement, 2018; "Women's History Month: The Centenary of Britain's First Birth Control Clinic", University of London: Senate House Library.)

In March 1921, exactly one hundred years ago, Marie Stopes and her husband Humphrey Verdon Roe founded the first birth control clinic in Britain. Mothers' Clinic for Constructive Birth Control as it was called, was established at 61 Marlborough Road in Holloway, a working-class area in North London. The opening of the clinic had a huge impact on the twentieth century, may we only remind of the perception of the 'necessary evil' that prevailed in Victorian age around sex and God-forbid the enjoyment of the erotic act, even in a marriage. The clinic marked the start of a new era in which married women and couples, for the first time, could reliably and openly be educated on reproductive health and birth control methods, take control over their fertility and all of these without a charge. On the first day that it opened, there was a queue of women waiting outside, attracted by posters announcing the event.

The Mothers' Clinics were carefully constructed spaces, private sanctuaries away from the public. Painted a blue shade, with furnishings resembling comfortable domestic sitting rooms, they radiated a sense of respectability and responsibility. Highly qualified midwives, wives and mothers themselves, dispensed advice to the vast majority of patients. Birth control as taught in the Mothers' Clinics was necessary to marital fulfillment and good health. In 1925 the clinic moved to Whitfield Street in Bloomsbury and Marie Stopes wrote the first official report of the Mothers' Clinic, entitled The First Five Thousand in which she claimed astonishing success. She alleged that only less than one percent of her patients became pregnant while following her clinics’ recommended birth control devices and four years later, ten thousand women had received contraceptive advice.

To regulate her own fertility in this way, a woman often had to overcome the stigma that birth control held in many working-class communities. Sex was taboo in most circles, and even feminists avoided the subject of birth control until long after World War I. Many women were brought up to believe that contraception was shameful and, for some, merely visiting a clinic was a subversive act. In her clinics, Stopes advocated three types of reproductive planning: preventing unwanted births, spacing children in a family, and helping couples who were infertile to conceive. She was opposed to abortions and instructed her midwives to educate women about the use of contraceptive technologies. Her preferred contraceptive device was the Pro-Race cervical cap, which The London Rubber Company made to her specifications and packaged together with Stopes’ Letter to Working Mothers.

But Marie Stopes was not the only pioneer figure. During her life, she met with her American equal: Margaret Sanger.

(Source: "Women's History Month: The Centenary of Britain's First Birth Control Clinic", University of London: Senate House Library.)

"Birth control is the first important step women must take toward the goal of her freedom. It is the first step she must take to be man's equal. It is the first step they must both take toward human emancipation" - Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger can be seen as the American counterpart of Marie Stopes. In the work of both women, some similarities can be found. Sanger worked as an obstetrical nurse in the Lower East Side of New York City, where she was confronted with poverty, uncontrolled fertility, high rates of infant and maternal mortality and death from illegal abortions. Sanger decided that it was time for action. The central goal of her mission was to prevent unwanted pregnancies, just like Stopes. She started her work on birth control around 1912. Sanger decided that the way to complete her mission was to publish articles and to found a birth control clinic in 1916, the first one in the United States, which was located in Brooklyn. But Sanger ran into a lot of opposition. At that time in the United States, it was forbidden by law to publish facts about contraception, a restriction Sanger tried to remove. However, this obstacle did not stop her from continuing her work. One of her publications in 1914 led to her being indicted for mailing materials advocating birth control. Even though those charges were dropped, she had to serve 30 days in 1917 in the Queen's penitentiary due to charges of causing public nuisance. During this episode of her life, Sanger could count on the support of the public. Her encounters with the court and legal harassment were beneficial for the birth control movement, since it led to the acceptance of physicians spreading advice about birth control methods. It initiated the reinterpretation of the Comstock Act of 1873, which labelled literature on contraceptive methods as obscene. Physicians were now allowed to import and prescribe contraceptives. It should be mentioned that there is an ongoing discussion on Sanger’s reasons for promoting birth control, since there are accusations that her actions were motivated by racism. However, we wanted to mention her work here since she made a sizable contribution to the development of the pill and the promotion of birth control. The story of Margaret Sanger shows clearly that the use of birth control hasn't always been considered normal, and that women have to fight hard for the right to control their own bodies.

(Sources: Margaret Sanger, Britannica Academic; C. Valenza, "Was Margaret Sanger a racist?", Family Planning Perspectives 17, no. 1 (1985): 44-46.)

"I still feel, as I have felt from the first, that there is nothing more important than birth control." - Katharine Dexter McCormick (in a letter to Margaret Sanger)

In the 1950s supporters of contraceptive research and the pill could not rely on US government funding. Katharine Dexter McCormick changed that situation almost single handedly. She funded the development of the birth control pill completely, even though this wasn’t a decision without risks. At that time thirty states restricted the use and sale of contraceptive measures. McCormick became a feminist and followed the idea that a woman’s control over their own body was as important as her right to vote. Her actions as a suffragist brought her in contact with the already discussed Margaret Sanger. In the 1920s, McCormick helped by smuggling diaphragms into the country, which were used by Sanger in her birth control clinics. At that time, McCormick was already a very wealthy person. However, she could not yet invest greatly in funding birth control research since there was still some debate with her husband’s family on the control of his wealth. But in 1947, with his death, McCormick became a millionaire and was finally able to devote her attention towards birth control. It was Margaret Sanger who introduced her to the idea of a birth control pill. McCormick was convinced immediately, since she found female-controlled contraception important. However, she was not persuaded by the academic approach of doing research. McCormick’s goal was to witness the development of the birth control pill. And she did. Again, thanks to Sanger, she came into contact with Dr. Gregory Pincus, who’s research would be funded by McCormick. Next to investing her money, she also supervised the development of the birth control pill. Katharine Dexter McCormick is the third pioneer figure we wanted to discuss, since her contribution to the development of the pill was forgotten for a very long time. Only in recent years, her role in the process was recognized by historians.

(Source: "Katharine Dexter McCormick", PBS American Experience.)

There is a general consensus among historians that since the Early Modern period, there has been fundamental change in how sexuality is understood and experienced, a process according to Jeffrey Weeks, "with its epicenter in the old West, but with powerful resonances on a Global scale" (Weeks 2016, p. 85). In general terms, this can be seen as a transition from a family-centered reproductive model in the eighteenth century, to a sexual system which emphasizes individual agency, posits sex as the key to selfhood and happiness, and is in many respects commodified. The timing of this shift is, however, contested, with some historians seeing a gradual shift from the end of the nineteenth century and others arguing for rapid change in the 1960s.

“The sexual revolution was considered by many to be the most shocking social trend in the 1970s. It cast aside traditional sexual restraints and began a decade of alternative eroticism, experimentation, and promiscuity. In part facilitated by the development of the birth control pill and other contraceptives, Americans in the 1970s broke many sexual taboos. Interracial dating, open homosexuality, communal living, casual nudity, and dirty language all seemed to indicate a profound change in sexual behavior. Sexual activity among the young especially increased. Surveys during the 1970s reported that by age nineteen, four-fifths of all males and two-thirds of all females had had sex. Fashion designers promoted a new sensuality, producing miniskirts, hot pants, halter tops, and form fitting clothes designed to accentuate women’s sexuality.”

(Source: Vincent Tompkins, Judith Baughman et al., American Decades 1970-1979, 1994.)

As we outlined in chapter 1, Birth control existed long before the 1900s. During the nineteenth century the practices started spreading wider and it became more common, although still suffered a lot of opposition from the Church and political authorities. In the 1960s more and more people started considering birth control as an instrument of increasing freedom, but talking about sex was still a big taboo in the 1970s. It was something that had not changed much since the start of a slow sexual revolution in the 1950s. However, the feminist movements of the 1970s tried to make the taboo atmosphere disappear in a fight for female self-determination of their bodies. Among their demands was free sexual education, cheap or even free contraceptives and the right to have an abortion.

Overseas in the United States, there were also actions taken by a birth control movement. Contraception and abortion were very important matters for politically active women in the 1970s, since the movement was closely linked to suffragist actions. It often involved the same people, like the earlier mentioned Margaret Sanger. There is a lot of literature available on the American birth control movement, for example Ellen Chesler’s Woman of valor: Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement in America and Peter Engelman’s A history of the birth control movement in America.

(Source: "Feminisme: De tweede feministische golf in Vlaanderen", Gender Geschiedenis.)

A growing number of women supported the Dolle Mina slogan “boss of my own belly” (baas in eigen buik). At that time, spreading information about contraceptives and abortion were punishable. Still, the Belgian Federation for Sexual Education, founded in 1955, and the Socialistische Vooruitziende Vrouwen tried to do it anyway. These restrictions on sensitizing and propagating birth control methods were increasingly criticized, especially after the invention of the birth control pill in 1961, which finally brought a reliable contraceptive method for women to the market. They started to protest the fear for unwanted pregnancies that dominated their sexual lives. For example, on the 10th of October 1970 the well-known Dutch feminist movement Dolle Mina protested in Amsterdam advocating the use of the contraceptive pill. Another of their actions was a playful sexual education class in the main street of Antwerp. They distributed fake pills and advocated for free abortion. Next to that, they took matters in their own hands and started providing assistance. After an international women’s day was contributed to abortion in 1976, there were three major protests in Brussels and Ghent. Also, abortion centres were founded but their work was illegal, which led to a very intense period of time. There are several examples of legal cases against doctors and other medical workers of that time. They would have to keep working in those circumstances until 1990, when the laws on abortion finally became a little less strict.

(Source: "Feminisme: De tweede feministische golf in Vlaanderen", Gender Geschiedenis.)

Birth control was, and still is, an emancipatory invention since it gave women the possibility to decide if and when they wanted to start a family and gave them different methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The reliability of the contraceptive pill was game changing. However, this emancipatory side of birth control needs to be put in perspective. Why is preventing a pregnancy the responsibility of women the majority of the time? Aren’t men equally responsible? Wouldn’t it be more emancipatory to provide the choice between male and female contraceptive pills?

The preference for female contraceptive methods can be explained by the irreversibility and inadequate results of the most used forms of male contraception. The invention of the pill increased the reliability and the success of female birth control, while the condom on the other hand is often criticized for failing. However, this does not answer the question why there should not be a male contraceptive pill, which is a topic that still creates a lot of debate. The idea of a male contraceptive pill has risen even before they researched the development of a female version. However, the research on male hormonal contraception is so advanced that the production of male contraceptives with the same reliability and success rate of female contraceptive methods is possible. Still, a male contraceptive pill has not been accessible for a general public.

(Source: A. Van Wersch, J. Eberhardt, and F. Stringer, "Attitudes towards the Male Contraceptive Pill: Psychosocial and Cultural Explanations for Delaying a Marketable Product." Basic and Clinical Andrology 22, no. 3 (2012): 171-79.)

It is uncertain why this is the case. In all probability it is related to psychosocial and cultural factors, among which are the idea of female contraceptive responsibility and the fear of some men that contraception may connotate a loss of their masculinity. Also, a low acceptability of, and trust in, a male contraceptive pill are often used as arguments against a male pill. However, the role of the media in spreading these ideas needs to be brought to attention. There are cases of tampering with reports on male and female trust in the male birth control pill, as published by media companies. In general, both men and women have a positive attitude towards the male contraceptive pill. This shows that a lot of further research on these psychosocial and cultural factors is required. A final reason that should be mentioned when explaining the absence of a male birth control pill on the market is the fear of the long-term effects and health risks.

This argumentation makes little sense, since the female pill brings side effects and dangerous risks with it as well, especially in the beginning, when the first birth control pills were created. The pill was available on the market only ten years after its initial development. The refinements took place while the contraceptive pill was being used and the side effects and risks became clearer. This use of the fear of side effects and risks as an argument against the production of a male contraceptive pill reinforces the idea of the man as the superior human, while the woman is portrayed as inferior. This is a view that still very much alive today. It is necessary to continue debating this topic. On social media, for example, there are more and more voices expressing the necessity of the discussions on the emancipatory characteristics of birth control methods.

(Source: A. Van Wersch, J. Eberhardt, and F. Stringer, "Attitudes towards the Male Contraceptive Pill: Psychosocial and Cultural Explanations for Delaying a Marketable Product." Basic and Clinical Andrology 22, no. 3 (2012): 171-79.)