Women came from the farther parts of Long Island,
from cities in Massachusetts and Connecticut and even more distant
places. Mothers brought their married daughters. Some whose ages were
from 25 to 35 looked fifty, but the clinic gave them new hope to face
the years ahead. These women invariably expressed their love for
children, but voiced a common plea for means to avoid others, in order
that they might give sufficient care to those already born. They
wanted them "to grow up decent."
For ten days the two rooms of this clinic were crowded to their
utmost. Then came the police. We were hauled off to jail and
eventually convicted of a "crime."
Ethel Byrne instituted a hunger strike for eleven days, which
attracted attention throughout the nation. It brought to public notice
the fact that women were ready to die for the principle of voluntary
motherhood. So strong was the sentiment evoked that Governor Whitman
pardoned Mrs. Byrne.
No single act of self-sacrifice in the history of the birth-control
movement has done more to awaken the conscience of the public or to
arouse the courage of women, than did Ethel Byrne's deed of
uncompromising resentment at the outrage of jailing women who were
attempting to disseminate knowledge which would emancipate the
motherhood of America.
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