Natasha Szuhan, The Family Planning Association and Contraceptive Science and Technology in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain

Abstract

This is an important and solid study of often under-appreciated aspects of the work from 1930 to 1974 of the major birth control organisation in the UK, the National Birth Control Association, which became the Family Planning Association in 1939. It lacks the dramas we associate with the nineteenth-century pioneers, or Marie Stopes. What it does do is set out the more nuanced and humble history of the association and its members as leaders in medical contraceptive provision, scientific research, application and advocacy, the creation and delivery of education, advice and therapy, and networking and lobbying for the acceptance and oversight of contraception by officials, both medical and governmental. This book adds substantially to our understanding of the work of the NBCA/FPA, the progress of contraception research, the running of clinics and the contribution of various players both internal and external. However, it is rather oddly framed. Szuhan opens by describing three social and scientific theories intersecting at the opening of the twentieth century: ‘Social Darwinism‚ Malthusianism and Eugenics’ and claims that ‘Each supported scientific birth control to address decreasing health and living standards and population concerns’. The founding of the NBCA is said to have been in response to these needs.