The first birth control clinic in the world was opened in Holland in 1882 under the auspices of the Nieuw Malthusiaanschen Bond (the Dutch Malthusian League). The League was founded in 1881 – and was immediately opposed by the medical profession! Two doctors, however, joined the organisation in the early days – Dr. de Rooy (1881) and Dr. Aletta Jacobs (1882), the first woman to become medically qualified in Holland. From 1883 Dr. Jacobs held a clinic twice a week to give advice on infant welfare to working-class women. Soon she became aware of the Mensinga Diaphragm and started giving birth control advice.
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