Neo-Malthusianism:
Birth Control in the Netherlands

Introduction

This is a digital exhibition on the introduction of birth control in the Netherlands between 1870 and 1940, and the accompanying debate. The leading part is taken by the Nieuw-Malthusiaanse Bond ("Neo-Malthusianism League"), whose archives are housed in the IISG. How this Dutch organization for birth control came by its name is explained in the first section of the exhibition. The following sections highlight Dutch pioneers of birth control, among them Aletta Jacobs and Johannes Rutgers. The opinions of both advocates and opponents of birth control and contraception are presented in digitized book chapters, newspapers, letters, pamphlets, posters, newspaper cuttings, and booklets. The exhibition features a collection of information booklets dating from around 1900, describing and depicting condoms, pessaries, and other contraceptives. These and other booklets, some of which are very rare and fragile, are fully digitized and can be viewed online, along with a few issues of Het Gelukkig Huisgezin ("The Happy Family") and Verstandig Ouderschap ("Wise Parenthood"), the official house organs of the Nieuw-Malthusiaanse Bond.

From Malthus to neo-Malthusianism

The debate about contraception started in the nineteenth century and was mainly driven by fear of overpopulation. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), an English clergyman and economist, had calculated that the increase in population would eventually surpass the food supply. Hunger and misery would result unless people began to marry later in life and practice sexual continence. His predictions made a profound impression. Among those who took his warnings seriously were the English freethinkers Annie Besant, Charles Bradlaugh, and George and Charles Drysdale. Unlike Malthus, however, they did not reject the use of contraceptives as a means to curb population growth. On the contrary, they felt people should be educated in sexual matters and the use of contraceptives.

Their ideas were taken on by Samuel van Houten, a radical politician best known in the Netherlands for a law to restrict child labour, and his political friend Carel Victor Gerritsen. In 1881 Gerritsen and a couple of other radicals founded an organization to propagate the new demographic ideas. By naming it "Nieuw Malthusiaansche Bond" (NMB), or Neo-Malthusian League, they indicated that they shared Malthus's ideas on population but not on contraception. In the Netherlands new-Malthusianism or neo-Malthusianism long remained the general name for birth control by contraceptive means. The first NMB board included representatives from the Algemeen Nederlandsch Werklieden Verbond, the earliest trade union federation of the Netherlands, and a striking number of army and navy officers. Fighting poverty by limiting the number of children was the main objective of the Dutch neo-Malthusians. By spreading information on contraceptive methods, working-class families in particular would be taught to reduce the size of their families and thus enhance their standard of living. For poor women consultation hours for free sexual advice and contraceptives were organized. Among the best known doctors who did pioneering work in this area were Aletta Jacobs, the first woman doctor in the Netherlands, and Johannes Rutgers, physician and long-time NMB secretary.

Resistance

Opposition arose from all corners of society: neo-Malthusianism was immoral and would pave the way to sexual abuse, prostitution, and abortion. For religious believers the use of contraceptives was a 'sin crying out for vengeance'. Since the church rejected the separation of sex and reproduction, it is not surprising that it condemned the use of contraception. Yet among the opponents were also large numbers of socialists who were suspicious of neo-Malthusianism because in their view poverty was not the result of large families but of unequal social and economic conditions. Feminists had diverse opinions about neo-Malthusianism, but avoided an open debate on this controversial issue for fear of jeopardizing the movement for women's suffrage. Most doctors were afraid to be associated with the issue and remained noncommittal at best.

Despite the opposition, the NMB could carry out its programme relatively undisturbed. Between 1885 and 1938 it produced a large number of publications, such as the famous "middelenboekjes", booklets that explained how to use condoms, pessaries, and other rubber articles. Following a campaign by religious politicians, the Dutch parliament passed an anti-vice law in 1911 that banned advertising contraceptives, but it did not seem to have affected their sale and further acceptance.

From ideological organization to interest group

In the meantime the NMB had changed from being an organization with a social-political mission to a practical interest group. In the 1930s it opened several sexual health centres; in Amsterdam the centre was named after Aletta Jacobs, elsewhere after Johannes Rutgers. In this respect the NMB may be considered a precursor of the post-second World War Nederlandse Vereniging voor Seksuele Hervorming (NVSH), or Dutch Association for Sexual Reform. In other sexual matters, however, the Dutch neo-Malthusians were not pioneers. Their activity was exclusively aimed at married couples and they considered homosexuality a taboo subject. The Dutch section of the World League for Sexual Reform, established in 1932 by NMB physician Bernard Premsela in cooperation with the many-sided social democratic politician Floor Wibaut, was more progressive. Both organizations ceased to exist after the German invasion of the Netherlands.