Many women accept their husbands caresses in fear and trembling and many, imagining that there is a close connection between orgasm and pregnancy succeed in making themselves frigid, which leads to neurotic disturbances in the wife and unhappiness for both mates. Many husbands never dare to "let themselves go" unless it be in the arms of a prostitute who is "wise" and can "take care of herself." Many a woman has deceived her husband because a wise "man of the world" assured her that she ran no risk of pregnancy in his arms.
The Nightmare of Abortion. And, if in spite of all, an "accident" happens, what is the mental state of the woman who calls at the "unethical" practitioner's office? While such an operation practiced with a modicum of skill may be harmless, the dread fear of possible consequences is quite able to kill the woman.
Fear may bring forth any morbid symptom, from an embolus to violent suppuration.
Fear, on the other hand, on which the advocates of suppressive measures rely, hardly ever leads anyone to continence or prevents any one from resorting to abortion.
Legal obstacles to contraceptive education attain only one result. They make married love risky and unpleasant, kill many a young woman and, in the case of neurotic mothers, allow one morbid generation to bring into this world another morbid generation.
The Plight of the Neurotic Woman. Many neurotic women imagine that they hate their husbands and rationalise that hatred by bringing up many absurd, imaginary charges against them. To them their husbands symbolise pregnancy.
Many neurotic mothers, who did not wish to bear another child, often compensate for their lack of real love for the unwelcome child by an absurd, exaggerated tenderness which spoils the child or develops morbid fears (the fear they might hurt or kill the child, fear as to the child's health or welfare) which wreck the child's mental balance and not infrequently land the mother in a sanatarium.
A neurotic woman I treated was obsessed by the fear that she might some day kill her husband and children. Several years ago she had had an abortion performed by a midwife whom she did not trust. Septic poisoning set in and she hovered between life and death for several months. A great fear of death drove her into reading many religious books. She came to the conclusion that she had committed a murder.
But her husband, having impregnated her, was more guilty than she, for he was the cause of it all. Hence, her insane logic added, he and she would be better off dead than leading a sinful life. She should, therefore, kill him and kill herself. Furthermore, her children being the offspring of murderers, must be themselves tainted with criminal tendencies and should also be saved from a life of crime. When she was brought to me she had attempted to kill the entire family by turning on the gas faucets all over the house about two o'clock in the morning.