FIRST - Canada's First Birth Control Clinic
N 43° 15.241 W 079° 51.736
17T E 592352 N 4789651
Located in Hamilton, Ontario was the FIRST ever Birth Control Clinic in Canada. It was started by Doctor Elizabeth Bagshaw, to address what she saw as a local need.
Waymark Code: WMENA
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 06/11/2006
Views: 114
The content provided below is not intended to promote a viewpoint regarding this issue. It is merely to provide information on the history of this location. The text provided is an amalgamation of other online resources, the links to which are provided for additional reading.
Under the 1892 Criminal Code, birth control was obscene, "tending to corrupt morals." Unless an accused could prove that its advocacy had been "for the public good," he or she was liable to serve a 2-year jail sentence. Contraception was opposed by pronatalist business, religious, and political interest groups. Their attacks on the "birth controllers" were frequent and often defamatory.
Plaque of the FIRST
From 1932 until 1966, Dr. Bagshaw spent Friday afternoons as the medical director of Canada's first and illegal birth control clinic. Information was given out, and pessaries, jellies and condoms were dispensed there. Early in her practice she would never have spoken of birth control, but after the Depression that was no longer the case. "There was no welfare and no unemployment payments, and these people were just about half-starved because there was no work, and for them to go on having children was a detriment to the country. They couldn't afford children if they couldn't afford to eat. So the families came to the clinic and we gave them information." She did this courageously despite opposition from medical colleagues and local clergy. She would see any woman who had need of contraception information.The clinic became legal in 1969 and has been supported by government grants.
Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw
On April 11, 1973, Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada for the more than 30 years she had devoted to the practice of medicine in the City of Hamilton. She also received many other honours: Life Member, Ontario Medical Association, 1954; Senior Member, Canadian Medical Association,1969; Hamilton's Citizen of the Year, 1970; Elizabeth Bagshaw Elementary School in Hamilton was named in her honour, 1971; a portrait was hung in the permanent museum of family planning established by Ortho Pharmaceutical (Canada) Ltd. in Toronto; LL.D. (Hon.), McMaster University, 1974; Life member, College of Family Physicians of Canada, 1976; Bagshaw Chapter, Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE), named in her honour; Persons Award, 1979; and a guest lectureship was established in her name by the Hamilton Academy of Medicine, 1981.
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Referrence Links:
Dr. E. Bagshaw
History of Birth Control in Canada
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