Informing the ‘Broad Masses’: Early‐Twentieth‐Century Birth Control Debates and Activism in the Polish‐American Community

Abstract

Abstract During 1925–26 and 1928, debates about birth control took place in the readers' column of North Star ( Gwiazda Polarna ), a US Polish language weekly. These discussions provide a rare insight into how ideas spread by the US birth control movement were received by an immigrant and ethnic working‐class Catholic community. The readers’ letters showed the prevalence of socialist rationales for birth control, expectation from men to play an active role in family limitation, the lack of references to women's sexual pleasure and an ambivalence towards the teachings of the Catholic Church. In the wake of the discussion, one North Star editor established a birth control association to inform the ‘broad masses’. This role was also played by the North Star letters, which spread family planning information and dispelled the misconceptions regarding birth control possessed by many Polish‐Americans at that time.