Is abortion ever justifiable?—Only when it is done to save the life of the mother.

What are some of the causes of miscarriage?—Intercourse during pregnancy and nursing a child after conception are the chief causes. The child should be weaned as soon as a mother suspects pregnancy. Venereal diseases, straining at stool, over-exertion, physical accidents and ill health may sometimes cause miscarriage.

When does life begin in a child?—At conception. It is as much a crime to destroy the life of a fetus one day old as it is after its movements are felt.

Is it possible to lessen the inconvenience of pregnancy and the pain of child-birth?—Yes. Avoid all tight lacing; eat chiefly a diet of cereals, fruit and vegetables; take light, regular open-air exercise, of which walking is best, and have little or no intercourse during the time. Tight lacing has been the chief cause of the inconvenience and pain experienced by civilized woman.

NINTH DIVISION
MORAL, SOCIAL AND REFORM TOPICS

CHAPTER LV
SCHOOL INSTRUCTION IN SEX HYGIENE
By Charles W. Eliot
President Emeritus of Harvard College.

In order to make head against the horrible evils which accompany men’s profligacy and women’s prostitution, and to prevent the moral and physical disasters which result from young men’s and young women’s ignorance about the natural processes of reproduction in the human species and about the laws of health in those processes, it is indispensable that systematic instruction should be given to all young children and young people in the processes of reproduction and growth in plants and animals, in the general rules of hygiene, in the natural, wholesome processes of reproduction in the human species, and at last in the diseases and social disorders which follow violations of nature’s laws concerning the relations of the sexes. The bitter experience of the Christian world in regard to the venereal diseases and their consequences demonstrated this proposition.

Policy of silence a failure.—Wherever anyone undertakes to discuss this subject in public, he is met by two adverse opinions which are firmly held by multitudes of well-meaning people. The first is the opinion that these are unclean subjects, about which the less said the better. This is the policy of silence concerning all sexual relations and processes, natural or unnatural, rightful or sinful, which has prevailed for centuries in both barbarous and civilized countries. There is but one thing to be said about this policy of silence, namely, that it has failed, everywhere and always. It has not prevented the spread and increase of sexual wrong-doing and of the horrible resultant diseases, degradations, and destructions. For the prevention and eradication of any great social or governmental wrong, publicity, discussion, and the awakening of a righteous public sentiment in the great mass of the people concerned have always been, and always must be, necessary.

Parents as instructors.—The second adverse opinion is that the necessary instruction on these subjects should be given to children and young persons by their parents and by them alone. This opinion is sound to this extent, that in cultivated and refined families, in which the parents possess sufficient knowledge of the whole subject, the needed instruction will best come to the children through the mother and the father, beginning at a tender age. All children ask questions on this subject. Their curiosity is roused early, and is usually very pointedly expressed. The asking of questions should invariably be the mother’s precious opportunity to describe to the child, with delicacy and reserve, but truthfully, the mother’s part in the production of the human infant. By so doing, the mother will establish a new bond between herself and child, and will acquire a strong claim on its abiding affection. Every father competent for the task should see that his boys understand the natural and wholesome process of reproduction, and the great physical dangers which accompany violations of the moral law in this respect. He should see that they know that continence is absolutely healthy, and, indeed, is indispensable to the highest attainment in bodily strength and endurance. He should make sure that his boys understand what honor requires of a man in his relation to women, and that chastity is just as admirable and feasible in a man as in a woman, and just as necessary for the protection of family life and the eradication of the very worst evils which now degrade and poison civilized society. It is quite true that all this instruction will come best, whenever possible, from loving fathers and mothers to their own offspring; because it will then be given intimately, privately, and with tenderness and purity.

Inasmuch, however, as the great majority of parents do not now possess the necessary knowledge, or the faculty of expression necessary for imparting it, and there are many families that have lost father, mother, or both, society must for the present rely in the main on the schools to give this instruction, which is, indeed, indispensable for the salvation of civilization.