Birth control laws

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About this book

"Birth Control Laws: Shall We Keep Them, Change Them, or Abolish Them" by Mary Ware Dennett is a public-policy treatise written in the early 20th century. It scrutinizes how U.S. federal and state statutes born of “Comstockery” restrict access to contraceptive information, and weighs whether these laws should be retained, modified, or repealed. The work maps the legal framework, recounts its origins, and considers practical and ethical consequences for families, physicians, and public institutions. The opening of the treatise sets its scope: it will not argue the merits of birth control itself, but will examine the laws that govern access to contraceptive knowledge and how those laws should change. Dennett outlines the book’s structure and then, through vivid examples—a mother’s letter to her daughter, a doctor-to-doctor exchange, and a lawmaker’s private plea—shows how federal statutes make even basic advice a crime.