Surgery: Voluntary Sterilization

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Appalachia Campaign. The popularity of voluntary sterilization was not generally suspected until 1959, when a study by the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center showed that in one out of every ten couples of childbearing age, either husband or wife had been sterilized. The survey sampling ranged through all social strata. The only population group showing markedly lower-than-average rate was the Roman Catholics, to whom sterilization is forbidden by papal encyclical and decree.

Proponents of voluntary sterilizatie" are not so much propagandizing for the operation as they are trying to break down prejudices against it. One area where there is an active campaign t. promote it is Appalachia, where men who have been unemployed for years continue to father unwanted children. The Voluntary Sterilization group has set up a pilot project for several countries,* with a $25,000 grant from Jesse Hartman, a Manhattan real estate man. In its first six months, this plan has signed up scores of men and women, with 115 operations already completed or approved at an average cost of $195 for women and $40 for men. Charge to the patients: nothing.