BIRTH CONTROL

There are 59 abortions committed every minute around the world, whereas last year in the United States some 300,000 illegitimate babies were delivered. These statistics editorialize where Ernest Havemann does not in an explicit synthesis of the scientific, ethical, religious and practical facts about birth control from its earliest mention (4000 years ago), uses, to the present methods (with an excellent chart on effectiveness, side effects, costs, etc.). The diaphragm has a 12 in 100 fallibility; the twenty day pill is almost 100% perfect, and there are newer alternatives--the minipill, morning after pill. The position of the Catholic Church is stated but not debated. There is an extension of birth control per se from the wanted baby to the neglected casualty of the slum areas, and the complete cycle of fertilization and gestation is well covered.