The day book. [volume], November 29, 1915, LAST EDITION, Image 30

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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BOLLINGER BABY CASE AGITATION MAY
CARRY BIRTH CONTROL FIGHT TO CONGRESS
New York, Nov. 29. Dr. Frederick
H. Robinson, famous editor of the
Medical Review of Reviews and lead
er of the fight for birth control in
the United States, announced today
that as a result of the greatly dis
cussed death of the little Bollinger
baby in the German American hos
pital in Chicago a national battle to
secure the repeal of laws preventing
birth control in America is to be
started the minute congress con
venes in Washington, Dec. 6.
Dr. Robinson announced that a
band of reformers has already been
selected to assail the legislators when
they assemble in the capital.
"Three years ago," said Robinson
today, "we were treated like crim
inals when we attempted to get the
matter before congress. But the wide
discussion of the Bollinger case has
made ;t impossible for the lawmak
ers to ignore the subject any longer.
"The Bollinger case has no direct
bearing on birth control, for the
mother already had had two healthy
children. But the publicity which the
case has received has at last swept
away these barriers of silence which
hitherto have kept the subject of
childbirth from consideration by our
great American public.
"The federal law now provides a
penalty of five years in prison and a
fine of $5,000 for any physician who
advises a patient how to avoid child
birth. We have been urging the re
peal of this law, but without any suc
cess. "But now the outlook is very
bright indeed. Reputable physicians
have exonerated Dr. Haiselden of all
blame for the death of the unfortu
nate Bollinger child and the members
of congress in view of this fact will
be sure to give us a hearing.
"There is no single measure that
would so positively, so immediately
contribute toward the happiness and
Jhe progress of the human race as
teaching the people the proper means
of birth control. I have been drawn
into this propaganda by my observa
tions as a physician of the terrible
suffering and misery resulting from
too many children, which I have wit
nessed among my friends and ac
quaintances, and, in the early years
of my practice, among my patients.
There is not a physician who has not
had many cases in his practice of
families which started life well but
which became quickly demoralized
financially and physically by children
coming in too rapid succession.
"While the first child and perhaps
the second are received with genuine
joy, the third and fourth are met
with indifference. The succeeding
ones are considered catastrophes.
"More than one physician has told
me that fathers have endeavored to
prevent them form using artificial
respiration on a stillborn baby, re
marking that the child was not worth
bothering about.
"In my opinion a working man
should not have more than two chil
dren under present conditions. Ev
ery child after the second, and par
ticularly after the third, is individu
ally and racially a calamity. Besides
destroying the health of the mother,
too many children among wage earn
ers simply gluts the market with
wage slaves.
"One of the most beneficial effects '
of the repeal of the laws preventing f
the giving of information on birth
control would be the diminution of
the terrible crime of abortion. The ""
present vicious laws are responsible
for thousands of abortions among
unmarried woman and tens of thou
sands among married women in this
country.
"The law places family limitation
and abortion on precisely the same
plane; yet one is the terrible conse-1
quence of the lack- of legitimate in
formation about the other.
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