Birth Control

On November 3 Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to vote for or against legalizing advice on birth control by doctors within the State. A referendum has at last, come before the people. There is only one strong organization whose leaders have already voted against--the Catholic Church. Unfortunately they have twisted this purely social-medical issue into a religious one. Though their motives may be sincere and devout, at the same time they are doing a great injustice to one economic group within the State, those too poor to afford a private doctor. The, Catholic Church has not meant to divide this issue along class lines any more than do other groups which hate class distinctions. But, regardless of the motive, to outlaw proper birth control information is to deny the poorest families of the State knowledge they sorely need.

In peacetime, nearly sixty per cent of the nation's births are in families on relief, or living on a wage inadequate to provide for a growing family. Because doctors are forbidden by law to give contraceptive advice thousands of families through sheer innocence multiply more rapidly than they should for a mother's health or a breadwinner's wallet. Slum victims in or out of the city need medical advice as much as privileged residential dwellers. But in Boston already seven birth control clinics have been closed, while people of higher incomes can casually make a doctor's appointment behind closed doors for the same information deprived the low wage earner. There can be no dodging the issue, no matter how unhealthy class comparisons may be, only the poor suffer from an anti-birth control law.

Intelligent control of births will save thousands of lives yearly, which in itself should be enough to its name. Even with the great medical advance of the past hundred years still this State has an infant death rate of 40 per 1000 births. This figure and countless inherited diseases could be cut down if blind politicians would reject their medieval views and let medical progress benefit all of the people. Innocent people do not make a strong democracy, nor does democracy grow in the dark.

The right to get birth control information is a civil liberty as important as freedom of the press. It is not fair that one Christian sect should be able to deny another a civil liberty that it wants. Yet that is the situation in Massachusetts today. By passing this referendum simple justice will be meted out to every religious creed. Those who want birth control advice could receive it at the many city clinics, and those who think it is immoral can continue to think so. Fairness to the less financially privileged and freedom of conscience are the core of this people's referendum.