Contraception De-criminalized: 1969

[Kreskin]

Until 1969 it was a criminal offense to sell, advertise, distribute or promote contraception in Canada.

In a stunning liberal move, while Minister of Justice in 1967, Pierre Elliott Trudeau created a committee to review the potential decriminalization of contraception. The committee tabled a bill which was subsequently passed in 1969 resulting in the removal of any mention of contraception from the criminal code.

Was that a good move or should contraception-banning legislation be re-tabled to help improve traditional compassionate family values?

 

[lone wolf]

Around the same time one could still be arrested For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge with a partner who wasn't their spouse. Oddly enough - the word isn't an acronym....

Hmm.... Isn't that about when divorce became a fashion statement too?

Woof!

 

[Sal]

Until 1969 it was a criminal offense to sell, advertise, distribute or promote contraception in Canada.

In a stunning liberal move, while Minister of Justice in 1967, Pierre Elliott Trudeau created a committee to review the potential decriminalization of contraception. The committee tabled a bill which was subsequently passed in 1969 resulting in the removal of any mention of contraception from the criminal code.

Was that a good move or should contraception-banning legislation be re-tabled to help improve traditional compassionate family values?

Contraception is a personal choice and as such should not have anything to do with the government nor the law of the land.

If contraception-banning legislation were to be re-tabled it would a move toward fascism.

 

[Kreskin]

I'm hoping Harper puts it side by side with abortion vote he promised.

 

[lone wolf]

I'm hoping Harper puts it side by side with abortion vote he promised.

It's not likely. Politicians are recycled lawyers - and lawyers are only lawyers to make more lawyers money. Lawyers do very well off marital break-down. Really, the ones who get hurt the worst are the kids - those very kids that contraception prevents. That. too, is a cycle....

Woof!

 

[Kreskin]

Around the same time one could still be arrested For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge with a partner who wasn't their spouse. Oddly enough - the word isn't an acronym....

Hmm.... Isn't that about when divorce became a fashion statement too?

Woof!

Or is it "Fornication Under Consent of the King"?

 

[lone wolf]

I imagine you said one a lot louder when the cops raided the bed chambre....

Scary part is that 'F' word got a connection with sex through the German (or was it Swedish) word for breeding sheep.

Woof!

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Until 1969 it was a criminal offense to sell, advertise, distribute or promote contraception in Canada.

I remember it well. There was a nice little loophole though. It was okay to sell condoms for non-contraceptive purposes. If you ever unrolled one all the way, you'd see printed in small letters on it the message, "For protection against disease," though I doubt any media outlet would have distributed advertising or promotional material for them on that basis. I certainly never saw any. They were available only at pharmacies, and adolescent boys were full of urban myths of the "secret handshake" variety about how to get them without actually asking for them. I remember one story was that you had to make a fist, slip a quarter between the knuckles of your first and second fingers, and rap on the counter with it a number of times to indicate how many you wanted. And just in case you're wondering, no, I never tried it. Now they're on open shelves at the grocery store, and I was amused to note the other day a box of them that said "Large" on it. Think anybody'd buy a box labelled "Small?"

Was that a good move or should contraception-banning legislation be re-tabled to help improve traditional compassionate family values?

Yes it was a good move, and long overdue. Banning contraception would be dumber than dumb, and it'd never fly anyway.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Or is it "Fornication Under Consent of the King"?

Ah, the old "Droit de Seigneur" stuff. There's no evidence it ever existed, according to the inimitable Cecil Adams at The Straight Dope, nor is there any evidence that acronym is the source of the F word. You can find a nice little discussion of it if you look the word up here.

The only kind of people I can imagine supporting a ban on contraception, apart from the institutions of the Catholic and Mormon Churches (both of which believe god will send you the number of children you're supposed to have), would be some group with a name like Knights of Christ United in Faith.

 

[Kreskin]

It's hard to believe how things (no pun intended) have changed since 1969. No wonder Bryan Adams was dancing in the streets to Summer of '69.

I'm not promoting banning contraception. It was just a little historical fact that draws attention to how reproductive rights have changed. Canada has overcome a lot of bedroom meddling from the state, and like him or hate him Pierre Trudeau has created much of that change. We're light years ahead of most of the planet when it comes to individual rights because of his vision and determination. I'm not defending him on everything else but personal freedoms is where he got it right, and I can't think of anything more important than those.

 

[TenPenny]

Hmm.... Isn't that about when divorce became a fashion statement too?

Back in those days, because they had no provincial laws, divorces in NF and Quebec had to be done by a Private Bill, voted on by Parilament. Can you imagine?