Abstract

Sanctified Birth Control

The belief that every woman has a "safe" or a sterile period in her monthly cycle has been an old wives' tale since time immemorial. Within the past few years, however, researches have been published which have aroused much discussion in medical circles, while popular books recommending the "safe period" to the laity have been brought out both in the U.S. and abroad by Roman Catholic authors with ecclesiastical sanction. These books frankly accept the necessity for some sort of control. "The problem of family limitation is an intensely real and personal one today," says the Reverend John A. O'Brien, in his "Legitimate Birth Control According to Nature's Law." "There is unemployment," Father O'Brien concedes, "lack of sufficient means to provide food and clothing for the children already born, worry over the prospect of even greater economic privation and suffering, and at times the depletion of the mother's vitality and strength from a recent childbirth."