Doctors Seek Revised Birth Control Law

Two Medical School professors have sponsored a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature which would repeal an 1847 obscenity law prohibiting the dissemination of information about birth control.

Dr. Duncan E. Reid, William Lambert Richardson Professor of Obstetrics, and Dr. David D. Rutstein '30, professor of Preventative Medicine, have asked that registered physicians and pharmacists be allowed to prescribe and distribute contraceptive devices. These actions are presently illegal.

Part of the doctor's optimism for the bill's successful passage is due to the tacit support from a traditional opponent of birth control legislation, the Roman Catholic Church. Richard Cardinal Cushing has publicly stated that "in no way will I feel it my duty to oppose amendment to the law."

Hearings Set

Public hearings before the Commission on Public Health will begin on Feb. 9.

At present, anyone who knowingly gives information about preventing pregnancy or dispenses contraceptives is liable to a five year prison sentence or a $1000 fine or both. The doctors' amendment, if adopted, would exempt physicians and pharmacists from these restrictions.

Reid, also Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical School, stressed that the proposed amendment "is not concerned with either abortion or sterilization. It does not compel any group of citizen to violate their religious beliefs."

"Our bill is not just to increase pressure in this area," he said. "We expect to win, otherwise we wouldn't have put it in. It is time for the old law to be repealed."

Law A Paradox

"In this state, the physician is forbidden to give contraceptive help but paradoxically is permitted to resort to more extreme measures to save the life of a mother," he added.

Reid said he did not know for sure how his colleagues at the Medical School felt about his proposal but he said. "I hope they would favor the action I can't imagine why they wouldn't."

Massachusetts and Connecticut are the only states which still have laws prohibiting the measures desired by Reid, Rutstein, and their supporters.