UU Choice History: A Brief Episode

By Rev. Deborah Mero

When we think about birth control, we think of Comstock and Margaret Sanger. When we think of abortion, we think of Jane Roe, Sarah Weddington, and Justice Harry Blackmun. But there is far more to the story than any of us can imagine and tomes that tell more and more of the story. Here, however, there are names we Unitarian Universalists need to know about. Blanche Ames Ames and Rev. David Rhys Williams are among them. We have much work to do in collecting our history. The books that tell us about what happened in this struggle for reproductive rights don't tell us about the religion of the activists unless it factors directly in to what they did. But the stories are there to be discovered and lifted up for the sake of our own role in history.

Let me tell you a little about Blanche Ames Ames. She lived from 1878 to 1969. She was an artist, a writer, an inventor and an activist. She was born in Lowell, Mass. to a prominent New England family. Her father had served as Governor of Mississippi during reconstruction and her grandfather had been Governor of Massachusetts. After graduation from Smith College, she married Oakes Ames and moved with him to North Easton, MA. Her first political passion was women's suffrage. It may seem odd to us now, but in the early years of the 20th century, Massachusetts was one of the most conservative states in the Union. It boasted the first organization in the country that was actually opposed to women's suffrage. (Rosen, Robyn L. REFORMERS AND THE POLITICS OF MATERNAL WELFARE , 1917–1940 (Columbus, OH: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003) p. 110) The moving forces in the state at that time were very conservative politicians and the Catholic church. Despite the opposition, she co-founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916 and served as its president on and off until 1935. During these long years she was often at odds with Margaret Sanger who was working toward the same goals in New York state. At this time, the Comstock laws were strongly in force which categorized birth control information and devices as obscenities and prohibited their distribution through the post office. We have Ashcroft, they had Comstock. I think they have the same genetic material.

In any case, the tactics used by Mrs. Ames that spanned two decades went from trying to get legislation sponsored to challenging the laws in court. She tried working without the medical establishment—which was not yet very established—and then working with the fledgling American Medical Assn. The struggle was a long one and it diverged often from what was being tried in New York by Margaret Sanger in a number of ways. The Birth Control League of Massachusetts changed their name (and part of their mission) to the Family Welfare Foundation, fearing that even having the words “birth control” in the name would open them up to possible prosecution. Her mission was to improve the quality of family life in all of its aspects. She was very concerned about infant mortality and women dying in childbirth. In 1928, the Birth Control League was revived after an 8 year dormancy thanks to Dr. Antoinette Konikow who was arrested for “exhibiting contraceptive devices.” Mrs. Ames stepped forward to raise money for her defense and revived the organization, this time using physician's rights rather than feminist ideas as a basis for the work. It wasn't until 1937 that the AMA declared birth control to be a legitimate medical practice. They did so in order to be able to control how and to whom it was dispensed. Mrs. Ames had resigned from the BCLM in 1935 as a result of advertising that the League had put forth touting birth control as a way of reducing the welfare roles during the depression. She wrote,

“The object we seek goes through the medical, beyond the economic aspects even, and strives to protect the personal freedom of the individual to get adequate contraceptive aid, and to leave her free from control by self-appointed judges who seek to determine for her what are proper motives.

In the early 1930's Rev. David Rhys Williams delivered a sermon on "Voluntary Motherhood" which led to the establishment of a birth control clinic in the Unitarian Gannett House where it operated from 1934 until 1937 when it had to move to larger quarters; he was a member of the National Clergyman's Advisory Council of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and had Margaret Sanger in his pulpit just a few weeks after she was arrested; in 1934 he was on the Executive Committee of Monroe County Birth Control League. (p. 136)

Jumping to the 1960's when abortions were being done all over the country— in back alleys and under the guise of a variety of diagnoses in clinics, but none legally, UU clergy stepped forward to participate in the Clergy Consultation Service, a group of clergymen who carefully and caringly referred women desperate to end a pregnancy to doctors and clean clinics where they could be cared for. This was illegal and courageous. Among these ministers were the Revs. Farley Wheelwright, Richard Gilbert, John Nichols, and David Johnson. They each have their stories to tell as do so many in our movement who have been serving the cause with little or no recognition for their work. We need to collect their stories. We need to collect your stories. We need to educate ourselves and one another about where we came from in this issue in order to know where we have to go.

Please take the word back to your churches and your UU friends. We need the stories of the activists through the decades. Search in your church archives. Ask the elders. Please help us find the stories before they disappear into the vacuum of time.

If you have stories to contribute which illustrate UU involvement in the struggle to maintain women's reproductive health rights, we are searching for them! Please email: uuchoice@attbi.com and tell us more, or send your story to: UU Choice Project, c/o Deborah Weiner, UUA, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108.

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