Clinical Research Bureau
Encyclopedia
The Clinical Research Bureau was the first permanent birth control
clinic
in the United States. It was created as a result of the birth control movement in the United States
, which fought against anti-contraception laws. Several years after a 1918 New York appeals court ruling which permitted physicians to prescribe contraceptives, Margaret Sanger
decided to open a second birth control clinic, this time staffed with physicians to make it legal under the court ruling (Sanger's first clinic employed nurses, and was shut down by police soon after opening). The second clinic, called the Clinical Research Bureau (CRB), opened on January 2, 1923. To avoid police harassment, the clinic was not publicized, and it operated under the pretense of conducting scientific research. The existence of the clinic was finally announced to the public in December 1923, but this time there were no arrests or controversyconvincing the activists that, after ten years of progress, birth control had finally become widely accepted in America. The CRB was the first legal birth control clinic in the United States, and quickly grew into the leading contraceptive research center in the world. In 1928, the CRB was renamed to Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau.
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
clinic
Clinic
A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...
in the United States. It was created as a result of the birth control movement in the United States
Birth control movement in the United States
The birth control movement in the United States was a social reform campaign to make contraception legal in America. The movement began in 1914 when a group of radicals in New York City, led by Emma Goldman, Mary Dennett, and Margaret Sanger, became concerned about the plight of poor women, who...
, which fought against anti-contraception laws. Several years after a 1918 New York appeals court ruling which permitted physicians to prescribe contraceptives, Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...
decided to open a second birth control clinic, this time staffed with physicians to make it legal under the court ruling (Sanger's first clinic employed nurses, and was shut down by police soon after opening). The second clinic, called the Clinical Research Bureau (CRB), opened on January 2, 1923. To avoid police harassment, the clinic was not publicized, and it operated under the pretense of conducting scientific research. The existence of the clinic was finally announced to the public in December 1923, but this time there were no arrests or controversyconvincing the activists that, after ten years of progress, birth control had finally become widely accepted in America. The CRB was the first legal birth control clinic in the United States, and quickly grew into the leading contraceptive research center in the world. In 1928, the CRB was renamed to Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau.