Birth Control and the State: A Plea and a Forecast

Published in 1926, this passionate polemic from the Eugenics Society argues that the British government should provide contraceptive education through its public health infrastructure. C.P. Blackkler's central contention: allowing working-class couples to limit their families would strengthen the nation by producing healthier, more manageable citizens while preventing the social unrest that overpopulation threatens. The argument weaves between the pragmatic (maternal health, poverty reduction) and the troubling (concerns about 'racial decline,' the assumed inferiority of the poor). What makes this pamphlet essential reading is not its conclusions but its position at a fascinating historical crossroads: birth control advocacy in Britain was still radical, entangled with eugenics, and years away from mainstream acceptance. Blackler writes with genuine conviction that he serves the public good, making this a window into how progressive social reformers and eugenicist thinking sometimes wore the same face. For historians of sexuality, public health, and the eugenics movement, this is a primary source that complicates easy narratives about reproductive rights.