Birth control laws

Chapter 27: APPENDIX NO. 9 CALIFORNIA LAW AND Amendment Introduced in 1917 by Senator Chamberlain and Assemblyman Wishard

By Mary Ware Dennett

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About This Book

The author surveys American statutes that criminalize dissemination of information about controlling conception, traces their historical origin, and documents how enforcement has been sporadic and impractical. She examines the legal conflation of contraceptive instruction with obscenity and with abortion, considers federal and state reform proposals from repeal to limited modification, and reviews efforts to change laws through legislation and clinics. The book evaluates criteria for sensible public policy, outlines practical consequences for families and medical practice, and supplies appendices of sources and authorities to enable informed public judgment.

APPENDIX NO. 9

CALIFORNIA LAW
AND
Amendment Introduced in 1917 by Senator Chamberlain and Assemblyman Wishard

The California law is Section 317 of the Penal Code under the Chapter Heading, “Indecent Exposure, Obscene Exhibitions, Books and Prints, and Bawdy and Other Disorderly Houses.”

The bill introduced by Senator Chamberlain and Assemblyman Wishard amended the Section by striking out the words “or for the prevention of conception.” The wording of the Section is as follows:

317. Advertising to Produce Miscarriage. Every person who wilfully writes, composes or publishes any notice or advertisement of any medicine or means for producing or facilitating a miscarriage or abortion, or for the prevention of conception, or who offers his services by any notice, advertisement, or otherwise, to assist in the accomplishment of any such purpose, is guilty of a felony.