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Part: 12 Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536 Page 439440441442443444445446447448449450451452453454455456457458459460461462463464465466467468469470 of 1143
Public Health Service to take a more open-minded attitude about birth control.” (This change of attitude, I'm sure, was created by Mrs. Roosevelt urging Ross McIntyre to indicate that some more liberal attitude ought to be taken by them, and Mrs. Roosevelt's interest in getting something done on the Federal level was the result of Anna Rosenberg's and my work with her on the matter starting from the 16th of June of '41, the same year, when she called on me on Beekman Place.)
The President said that birth control was a politically hot potato and that he had never done much about it except in Puerto Rico. There, a few years ago, he said, “I asked the bishop what we were going to do about the population situation. The Bishop said, “Well, if you mean birth control, we can't do anything about that.’ So, I said, ‘Oh, I don't mean that. Let's call it adult sex hygiene or education.’ So, the Bishop said, ‘I think that would be all right,’ and after that we got a law changed and started to try to get somewhere on the situation.” Isn't that marvelous!
Mrs. Roosevelt was sincerely interested in the subject.
Oh, yes, really.
It's true that in 1950 there were about 120 birth control clinics and a bigger-scaled child spacing program per capita in Puerto Rico than in any other part of the United
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