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Ignorance, poverty, and vice must stop populating the world. Science must make woman the owner, the mistress of herself. Science, the only possible savior of mankind, must put it in the power of woman to decide for herself whether she will or will not become a mother.
—Margaret Sanger, c. 1920

Modern life is based on control and science. We control the speed of our automobile. We control machines. We endeavor to control disease and death. Let us control the size of our family to ensure health and happiness.
—American family planning poster, c. 1940

A few weeks ago, my wife and I made one of our rare pilgrimages to the nearest shopping mall. Bethany had been given a Victoria's Secret gift certificate at her bridal shower a year earlier, and was intent on finally redeeming it. The last time we visited a mall, she managed to lure me into Victoria's Secret, where my friends surprised me with a humiliating practical joke; having learned my lesson, this time I ducked into a bookstore and left her to her business.

When she returned, Bethany had a good time telling me about the various looks she attracted, browsing in Victoria's Secret with a round, pregnant belly. She had hoped to find some nursing bras; alas, they didn't sell them. "I guess they don't like to be reminded of where all that sexy lingerie leads."

Does making love still lead to making babies? Well, I suppose so. … if you're into that sort of thing. You know, like, whatever makes you happy.

In the decades since 1960, the year the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive drug, it has become quite common to think of sex and procreation as two separate phenomena. Today, when advertisements for condoms are no more unusual than ads for cigarettes and cellular phones, it is difficult to fathom the situation in 1960. At that time, 30 states prohibited the advertisement of contraceptives, and over 20 states restricted their sale. While these laws were often violated and seldom enforced, they still cast a shadow of ill repute over the burgeoning contraceptive industry. That shadow disappeared in 1964, when state laws restricting contraception were ruled unconstitutional.

Devices and Desires, a new history by Andrea Tone of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is a fascinating account of our quest to separate sex from procreation. Tone traces the rise of the American contraceptive trade from its bootleg beginnings to the major pharmaceutical industry it has become. In an engaging narrative style, Tone combines biographical sketches of pivotal figures with meticulous research drawn from often-overlooked sources—everything from newspaper advertisements to private correspondence. Among the many surprises in the story of contraception are the roles of two evangelical Christians.

The nineteenth-century laws banning the advertisement and sale of contraceptives were largely the legacy of one man, Anthony Comstock. Tone describes Comstock as an evangelical and a tireless crusader against all manner of vice. The law he drafted, known as the Comstock Act, was a broad statute banning not only contraception but also indecent photographs and instruments used to perform abortions. The Comstock Act was passed by Congress in 1873; subsequently, many states used it as a model, enacting their own "mini-Comstock" laws. While earlier laws had criminalized abortion, these were the first to address contraception. [1]

In his crusade, Comstock was joined by a wide and diverse coalition, including women's suffragists, purity reformers, and feminists. It was not until the twentieth century that feminists became champions of birth control. In the early days, Tone writes, women's rights advocates "tended to support natural family planning methods but not contraceptives, which they associated with promiscuity, particularly with men's license to have sex outside the bonds of marriage." Even some radical "free love" advocates condemned contraception, insisting that the acceptance and celebration of a woman's natural sexuality and fertility were essential to her spiritual and physiological well-being.

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