FOOLPROOF BIRTH CONTROL: Male and Female Sterilization

Lader, author of Margaret Sanger and the Fight for Birth Control (1955), Abortion (1966), and Breeding Ourselves to Death (1971), is also a well-known leadership figure in such proselytizing organizations as the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws, the Association for Voluntary Sterilization, and Zero Population Growth whose positions are advanced in this collection of advocacy for male vasectomy and female tubal ligation. Most of the articles reprinted here -- none is original except for a piece or two by Lader -- appeared in scholarly publications like JAMA (its breakthrough editorial in support of vasectomy), Fertility and Sterility (an item entitled ""Elective Vasectomy""), Journal of Marriage and the Family (the Poffenbergers' ""Vasectomy as a Preferred Method of Birth Control""), and The Lancet (a follow-up study of 186 sterilized women), but some are from more popular periodicals like Good Housekeeping (""At 22, My Husband Chose Sterilization"") and The Reader's Digest (Evan Wylie on ""Birth Control for Men""). The collection suffers from unavoidable repetition of information and propaganda, and while all controversial aspects are touched on, thee is a tendency to minimize the anti-VS position, e.g., the United Methodist Church's lengthy statement in support is printed in full whereas the Roman Catholic argument against is cursorily paraphrased. Appended material includes state-by-state lists of vasectomy clinics and ""Hospitals with Liberal Policies for Female Sterilization."" Overall, however, the compilation appears to have been a hasty cut-and-suture job.