The Bedroom and the State

The decline of the birth rate is arguably the most important social change of the twentieth century in Canada. The Bedroom and the State, first published in 1986, examines the social, cultural, and technological reasons for this decline and answers such questions as: * What forms of contraception were used prior to the Pill? * How widespread and dangerous has abortion been? * Why were so many feminists, socialists, ministers, and doctors initially opposed to birth control? * Who were its first proponents in Canada? * Why has Quebec's birth rate fallen so precipitiously? * Why was contraception illegal until 1969? The Bedroom and the State is recognized as a landmark history of how Canadian men and women sought to limit births and how public figures sought to turn such concern to political purposes. In this second edition the authors have updated their conclusion and added a new chapter to cover denouementof the pro-choice/pro-life debate in Canada, to detail recent court challenges to Canadian law, and to describe recent developments in reproductive technologies and their significance for present and future generations. This excellent work reveals that the control of fertility has been a crucial factor in the history of the shifting power relationships of the sexes and the classes.