Florence expressed her venom in a poem that was published in Reedy’s Mirror in 1916. Titled “Contra-Ception,” the poem attacked sex as “a hateful, pernicious invasion of body and soul and being,” and birth control as the devil’s black art that would enable “man’s degenerate lust” to “devour” women. With birth control, Florence wrote, marriage would be “one long orgy.” In her view, “No genuine male will stand for [abstinence] / To any degree whatsoever,” once the threat of pregnancy had been removed.
Contraception
