She has been adjured not to complain of the burden of
caring for children she has not wanted. Only the married woman who has
been constantly loved by the most understanding and considerate of
husbands has escaped these horrors. Besides the wrongs done to women
in marriage, those involved in promiscuity, infidelities and rapes
become inconsequential in nature and in number.
Out of woman's inner nature, in rebellion against these conditions, is
rising the new morality. Let it be realized that this creation of new
sex ideals is a challenge to the church. Being a challenge to the
church, it is also, in less degree, a challenge to the state. The
woman who takes a fearless stand for the incoming sex ideals must
expect to be assailed by reactionaries of every kind. Imperialists and
exploiters will fight hardest in the open, but the ecclesiastic will
fight longest in the dark. He understands the situation best of all;
he best knows what reaction he has to fear from the morals of women
who have attained liberty. For, be it repeated, the church has always
known and feared the spiritual potentialities of woman's freedom.
And in this lies the answer to the question why the opponent of birth
control raises the moral issue.
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