“The Right Number of Children”—Emko Birth Control in Puerto Rico and the US,1962–1966

Abstract

The population control ideologue Joseph Sunnen distributed his spermicidal vaginal foam Emko, first in Puerto Rico and then surreptitiously to poor and working-class women in the United States through the mail and in concert with Planned Parenthood in clinics and their workplace. He sought to limit the country's population by advancing an idealized American family of only one or two children. With a coordinated public relations campaign, he created the first mainstream magazine ad for birth control and placed ads in newspapers and magazines nationally to sell Americans on the benefits of having smaller families.