| Show THE ANTI MATERNAL CRIME in all our church pews throughout the civilized world there sit devout pro of religion whose souls are stained with crime women whose bowed heads bended knees and earnest responses through divine service indi y cate a fervor ot of baith yet whose private deeds have shocked high heaven and f Y broken one of gods most sacred laws should these women be assembled to aether ether arraigned for their crimes I 1 doubt if there is a court of justice in the land large enough to admit them I 1 refer to the ever increasing numbed number of women who for various reasons object to becoming mothers and who facing b the probability of such an event take the matter of life and death into their v own hands for many of thesle these women my heart aches with pity and sympathy ym pathy A lt is easy to understand their situation and to cast the mantle of charity over their y crimes when public disgrace stares a weak woman in the face as the result of an indiscreet act or when aber poverty and hunger an disease seem the inevitable portion that life will bequeath to an undesired child the temptation must be overwhelming to a sorrowful and bur deed woman to prevent the catastrophe of birth only those who have passed through the experience of motherhood can understand what it means to contemplate even under its brightest and best auspices with health love enough of this worlds goods to avert financial worry and with strong maternal desires yet it needs a brave heart a steady courage a spirit of self sacrifice and infinite patience to pass through the months of ordeals which it involves what theia must it mean to the unhappy wife unloved and neglected and already so burdened with unwelcome children that she cannot free herself from her galling gallin chains or to one who is obliged to to toil early and late to keep starvation from the door or to one who feels herself the victim of a hopeless malady which a helpless child will inherit and yet the woman who prevents the life of that germ from maturing to birth commits the crime of murder I 1 believe the false idea of many so called christian women in regard to this matter is due largely to their literal translation of one of of the many figurative scriptural phrases it seems to be the impression of such women that a child has no life until it has drawn breath the science of modern times however proves such an idea ridiculous A devoted church woman of my acquaintance made an unfortunate marriage she was obliged to return to her parents before six months had elapsed A dangerous illness which followed her return was not wholly due to mental agitation nor was her escape from maternity accidental she had purchased surgical skill to aid her in counteracting natures laws and to free her from the responsibility of a fatherless child it was not difficult to understand her temptation but with her religious views views it was difficult for me to see how she had dared commit the act oh but a child has no real being until it has breathed she said it would have been the loss of a soul had the breath of life entered the child as it is why it is merely a misfortune resulting in pain and misery to me that is all 11 alas for the narrowness and ot a creed that can be content with such an argument the moment a woman knows that motherhood is a probable event for her that moment she has the soul of her child in her keeping no matter how soon she escapes from this menacing maternity no matter how immature the germ of life she prevents from culminating yet in an immortal soul goes into the spirit life which she must sometime meet from eve every ry pulpit I 1 pi in in the land ought this truth to tu be e thundered forth it ought to form a part of the moral training in in in every young ladies seminary the he sinful poor burdened or diseased women who commit this crime are few in nur numbers ghers compared with the vast army of selfish fashionable wives who do not want to be troubled with children this army is is growing rapidly as medical assistance becomes more plentiful and skilful in this especial line I 1 have known women who committed this crime over and over again and I 1 never yet met such a one who was not hardened in heart and face there is something about it which destroys the moral fibre fabre of the mind even when the woman does not believe her embryo child possessed a soul A famous physician once said to me in the beginning of my practice I 1 used to help women who came to me for such purposes ur poses I 1 used to think that an unhappy gappy wife or a very poor woman was better off and left the world better off by avoiding maternity in this way if she could not in any other but my experience proved roved to me that I 1 was committing a bouble double sin I 1 not only destroyed a life but I 1 ruined the moral nature of the mother I 1 have been shocked at the degeneration of good women who escaped bearing offspring in this manner I 1 believe the repetition of the act several times slays the soul and fits the woman for almost any depravity it is a pity we nave have not more physicians of this kind they w would be of vast aid to humanity in its growski aowad a higher spiritual plane I 1 have personally observed many women whom I 1 knew to have perpetrated this crime and I 1 have remark P I 1 1 that the one of fine instincts and sensitive feelings is made a physical wreck for years by one experience even though she may believe herself justified in what she does but there is an instinctive shock to her higher self which not infrequently un settles her reason the lower order of woman with dulled moral perceptions and coarse feel ing ings may pass through it again and again without serious physical results only the expression of her face grows harder and her whole appearance is brutalized A vast amount of good might be accomplished would our clergymen stop quarrelling over dogmas musty technicalities cali ties and useless isms iams and devote devot their eloquence to this subject for a while it was only a short time ago that a tearful and sad young woman came to me and asked for a private interview I 1 had known her as a beautiful ambi bious girl and as a happy bride and as f a disappointed wife when we were alone together she said to me between sobs 1 I am very wretched as you know my marriage has been a disappointment disa my husband does not seem to care fop me and complains of his added expenses since his marriage now that I 1 am convinced a child is co coming ming to us u he is furious with rage and despair he says he cannot support a child that it will drag him down and hinder him from any hope of independence I 1 arnn am so unhappy I 1 have come to you to ask you how I 1 shall prevent this burden from falling upon me I 1 would not mind it only for his sake but he says other women extricate themselves from such troubles and that I 1 can if you were burdened by a helpless old father I 1 replied I 1 I 1 would you come to me and ask me to aid you in murder ing him this is just as great a crime go and tell your husband I 1 say so she left me only to find the assistance she sought elsewhere and rose from the brink of of the grave shortly afterward 0 a wreck of her former self she escaped the care and expense of bringing a child into this world but can she escape meeting that child sometime somewhere ELLA WHEELER WILCOX V |
