Virginia League for Planned Parenthood Scrapbook
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What Is the Idea Behind Planned Parenthood?
Planned parenthood is a democratic concept. It expresses the idea that parents shall have the final choice as to the prgeny they will bring into the world. It stands in contrast to the Fascist dogma that parenthood shall be regulated by an authoritarian state.
Planned parenthood is a health measure. It seeks to enable parents to have their children at a time when the couple, and particularly the wife, are fully prepared from the standpoint of physical and mental health for birth of a child.
Planned parenthood is a social force. It aids parents in the building of families commensurate with their abilities to provide for them adequately. It contributes to the assurance that children will be born with a healthful heritage, desired and loved by their parents, and with reasonable prospects of a normal, useful life.
Planned parenthood is not a panacea for all the problems which work against family stability. It is a part of good maternal care but it cannot substitute for it. It cannot fill the need for decent housing or a living wage. It cannot replace the desirability of a population policy which would encourage families of reasonable size, rather than conditions which penallize their existence.
Planned parenthood is contributing to improved health, exonomic standards and family relations in millions of families today. It can make a far greater contribution in the future together with other social and health measures, when its purposes are fully understood and frankly recognized in community life.
Note: The letter to Margaret Sanger which is included in this scrapbook may also be viewed separately in this Gallery.
The letter reads:
___, Va
July 26, 1943
Margaret Sanger
Dear Madam:
I saw your address and picture of some of your grate work in the Look Magazine and I wonder if you would send me some information on Baby spacing. I will be glad to pay for the information. I have two children and I have lost my health and I don't have any way to take care of a large family. I can't give my family the care they should have. Please let me hear from you. Yours for Victory.
Mrs.____ Va