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Birth Control Organizations > Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau

History

The Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau (BCCRB) began in 1923 as the Clinical Research Bureau (CRB), the first legal birth control clinic in the country. Opened in New York City by Margaret Sanger, the CRB operated under the auspices of the American Birth Control League (ABCL) and functioned primarily as a contraceptive dispensary and research laboratory. It quickly emerged as the nation's primary facility for the testing and study of contraceptive methods and devices. In June of 1928, when Sanger resigned as president of the ABCL, she assumed full control of the CRB (renaming it the BCCRB) and severed all legal ties with the ABCL. The BCCRB served as an autonomous clinic and research facility from 1928 to 1939. In 1939 it reunited with the ABCL to form the Birth Control Federation of America (BCFA), which in 1942 changed its name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). The BCCRB, which continued to function as the largest contraceptive clinic in the country, changed its name to the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau (MSRB) in 1940 in honor of its founder.

The BCCRB served well over 10,000 patients each year by the 1930s. It provided contraceptive instruction for married women and couples, a range of gynecological services, and training for physicians and students. The BCCRB also established a nationwide network of affiliated clinics and supervised numerous field projects in the rural south. Clinic staff worked in close association with Sanger's National Committee for Federal Legislation for Birth Control (NCFLBC), and promoted the inclusion of contraceptive instruction in public health programs throughout the country. The clinic's detailed follow-up work with patients and careful record-keeping enabled medical researchers, contraceptive manufacturers, and associated clinics to study the effectiveness and safety of particular forms of birth control, including the diaphragm and jelly, condom, and the rhythm method.

From 1925 to 1929, the Maternity Research Council (MRC), a group of New York physicians led by Robert Latou Dickinson, attempted to take control over the Clinic. While Margaret Sanger negotiated with the MRC and made several concessions, she abandoned the proposed merger in 1929 after the MRC failed to secure a dispensary license for the Clinic.

The BCCRB sought to operate within the constraints of New York State law, which stated that doctors could prescribe contraceptives only for the prevention or cure of a disease, including tuberculosis, syphilis, and various types of psychoses. The BCCRB broadly interpreted the law to allow parents interested in spacing their children to be eligible for contraceptive information, while treating countless other patients under a catchall of medical indications, such as general debility. The Bureau was challenged on several occasions for illegally dispensing birth control devices and information, most notably in April of 1929 when police raided the clinic, seized records and equipment, and arrested Medical Director Dr. Hannah Stone, along with four other staff members. A judge later dismissed the charges against the clinic and its workers, citing insufficient evidence. The raid generated significant publicity for the clinic and helped secure long-sought support from New York's medical establishment, which emphatically condemned the police action, called for a return of all patient records, and lent credibility to the work of the clinic.

In 1933 the BCCRB also participated in a test case to challenge the federal obscenity laws. Sanger arranged for a package of pessaries to be sent from Japan to the Bureau's medical director, Dr. Hannah Stone. The package was seized by customs officials. After an extended trial (U.S. v. One Package) and appeal process, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd District ruled in favor of releasing the package in 1936, stating that physicians could circulate and prescribe contraceptives and contraceptive information in the interests of the health and general well-being of their patients. As founder and director, Sanger managed the internal operations of the BCCRB as well as fund-raising, public relations and the pursuit of new research and testing. She was more intimately involved with the administration of the BCCRB than with any of the other organizations she established or directed during her long career. By the early 1930s, however, she left the daily management of the Bureau largely in the hands of its medical director, Dr. Hannah Stone, while concentrating her efforts on fund-raising activities and her campaign for federal birth control legislation.

Organizational Structure

Staff, Officers, Council Members, and Board Members:

Related Sources

The largest collection of BCCRB records is located on the Library of Congress microfilm of Sanger's papers. The Collected Documents Series includes organizational records and extensive correspondence drawn from the records of the Maternal Health Committee, the Robert Latou Dickinson Papers, Raymond Pearl Papers, Adolf Meyer Papers, the Abraham and Hannah Stone Papers, and other collections. The Smith College Collections Series contains considerable correspondence between Sanger and clinic workers, board members, and advisory council members, but a relatively small number of organizational records. There were a number of contemporary studies done on the BCCRB which provide information on the client base and clinic procedures. See for example: Marie Kopp, Birth Control in Practice (1933); Regine Stix and Frank Notestein, Controlled Fertility (1940); and Carol Hadley Robinson, Seventy Birth Control Clinics (1930).

For information about other organizations involved with the BCCRB, see the microfilm edition headings:

For conferences sponsored by the BCCRB, see:

For legal records pertaining to the BCCRB, see:


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Photo of patients waiting with children at the BCCRB, ca. 1925, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Revised: Oct. 18, 2005

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