Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians

"Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians" by Halliday G. Sutherland, M.D., is a disapproving analysis of population control ideas that rose to prominence in the early 1900s. The book refutes the claim that artificially preventing births solves poverty and society's problems. Instead, it passionately argues that these approaches are deeply flawed, and asserts that a belief in overpopulation is misguided. Sutherland attempts to reveal the harmful effects of the Malthusian view on families and communities through a religious and moral view point; opening with a rejection of the idea that overpopulation leads to poverty and disease, and then discussing Thomas Malthus' theory that population growth will always eclipse the food supply and cause the fall of society. Sutherland argues against this by presenting evidence that counters the overpopulation assertion, and then proposing the idea that poverty is correlated to things beyond the number of births. He frames birth control as an issue of morality.