About this book
Dorothy Thurtle (1901–1978), daughter of Labour leader George Lansbury and a birth control advocate in her own right, argued in this 1942 book for the decriminalisation of abortion on humanitarian and medical grounds. Writing during the Second World War, when poverty and unwanted pregnancy remained severe problems for working-class women, Thurtle drew on clinical evidence and social welfare arguments to challenge the criminal prohibition. Her writing placed abortion within the established birth control movement, associating it with the work of Marie Stopes and others who had already shifted public discourse on contraception. The book was banned in Ireland on publication in the same year it appeared.
Why it was banned
Banned in Ireland in 1942 under Part II of the Register of Prohibited Publications for advocating abortion. Dorothy Thurtle's book was cited by name in a 2025 parliamentary answer as still listed — making it one of the longest-standing entries on the register. The legal basis was abolished in 2018 following Ireland's constitutional change, but the register had not been formally wound down by 2025.
Bans
| Country | Year | Reasons | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 1942 | Moral | ||
| Register of Prohibited Publications, Part II. Explicitly cited by name in a 2025 parliamentary answer as still listed; legal basis abolished 2018. | ||||