At the bottom, however, of the religious objection, would appear to lie the conviction that excessive sexual indulgence, dissociated from the sequel of procreation and rendered possible by the use of contraceptives, is morally harmful to the individual.
8. An objection of a pseudo-political nature is sometimes heard which envisages a bureaucratic extension of Birth Control. The phrase is here understood to imply a ‘National Control of Births’ and not a ‘Voluntary Regulation of Births’, its more usual acceptance. Such a bureaucratic interference in people’s private lives is held to constitute an infringement of the liberty of the individual—in this case his liberty to have as many children as he likes, when he likes. The principle of individual liberty, the corner-stone of nineteenth century Liberalism, still has a certain number of adherents.
9. The last outstanding argument is to the effect that the popularization of Birth Control will lead to a general increase in promiscuity, both among married and unmarried people. The temptation to illicit indulgence would be made greater, the process of seducing an innocent girl would be made easier, the ever-present lure of prostitution to the underpaid girl worker would be made more difficult to resist, if an assurance could be felt that the subsequent birth of a child—hitherto a generally prevalent and effective deterrent—could be prevented by the exercise of a popularly known technique. The restraint imposed by fear may not be one of a high moral order, yet the end which it serves is here, by common consent, socially desirable. In face of the absence of any authoritative source of information on Birth Control, and of the indifference of the medical profession with regard to it, certain popular works on the subject have acquired an immense vogue and have enjoyed an enormous sale. Though not intended for this purpose, they are purchased and read extensively by young persons in much the same spirit that improper literature in general is read. Further, the sale to adults of these works containing as they do a magnification and eulogy of the sexual act per se (to be conceived, expressly, apart from its normal biological sequel of child-birth as a salutary and health-giving process), and containing also minute instructions as to the technical use of contraceptives, has not been confined to married persons. Such works have been held to inflame and pervert the imagination of the young, and on pseudo-medical grounds, to incite adults to promiscuity. It is to be noted, however, that the above is an argument directed not so much against Birth Control itself as against the method by which knowledge of it is communicated to the public.
These appear to be the most important arguments currently advanced against Birth Control.
It will be noted that several have been omitted from consideration. The one based upon biblical condemnation is too futile to merit restatement. The argument that contraception is ‘unnatural’ is equally undeserving of repetition. The contention that it is anti-biological will be discussed later.
Arguments on the other side will now be considered. They divide themselves into three groups, which may arbitrarily be designated as International, Social, and Individual arguments.
(a) International.—The connexion between over-population and war is nowadays fairly obvious and is particularly manifest in those countries which are both industrially organized and consciously nationalist in spirit. In the absence of these two conditions over-multiplication need not be followed by war. India and China, for instance, are very densely populated countries where over-multiplication frequently takes place. This process does not, however, give rise to much danger of international disturbance, in that both countries are, from the nature of their organization, incapable of conducting war on modern lines, and neither has a generally-felt, or a unifying national consciousness. Excessive increase is here frequently checked by famines, which, though causing incalculable suffering, do not readily generate wars.
Within recent years two countries have demonstrated the relation between over-population and war, or the threat of war, namely Germany and Japan.