Effectiveness of Birth Control: A Second Study of Contraceptive Practice in a Selected Group of New York Women

Family Planning Service Delivery Research: A Call to Focus on the Dynamics of Contraceptive Use

“…Despite the methodological pitfalls of comparing studies separated by 70 years, we believe the juxtaposition of unintended birth estimates from service delivery–based research in the early 1930s and a more recent investigation of national birth data lends credence to this assertion. Researchers at the Birth Control Clinic Research Bureau in New York City found that half of all births to family planning patients seen in 1931–1932 were “accidental.” 23 A 2001 estimate mirrors that finding—women using contraceptives at the time of conception accounted for almost half of all unintended births in the United States that year 24 —and therefore suggests that the prevalence of unintended pregnancy will not be addressed simply by the emergence of a range of more effective contraceptive options.…”

The Drama of 1916: The American Jewish Community, Birth Control, and Two Yiddish Plays

“…Willie returns to the Goldmans' home and explains to Mary, the maid, that he is fed up with Lily's jealousy and does not want to marry her anymore. Lily tells Mary that she is only jealous because she loves Willie so much, at which point the squabbling couple reconciles (58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63)(64). Esther returns home, and Madame Fuchs enters, supporting a drunk Louis, who reels back off stage while Esther confronts her neighbor (65).…”

“…58 A 1935 study showed that 45 percent of Jewish couples used birth control techniques immediately after marriage and 87 percent before a second pregnancy. 59 It was often difficult for working-class women living in decidedly unhygienic conditions to cope with the diaphragms that were the most up-to-date contraceptives during the 1920s and 1930s. But the observably lower birth rates of Jewish women during these decades indicate the degree to which Jewish women of all class backgrounds worked to limit their families as best they could.…”