Kaufman, Alvin Ratz (1885-?) (birth control)

Alvin Ratz Kaufman was president of the Kaufman Rubber Company in Kitchener, Ontario. Long an advocate of birth control services, Kaufman established the Parents’ Information Bureau in 1931 to distribute contraceptive supplies to low-income Canadian families. In 1936, one of Kaufman’s home visitors, who distributed such supplies, was charged with unlawfully advertising various methods of contraception. After a highly publicized trial, she was acquitted on the grounds that her action had served the public good. Kaufman was also instrumental in establishing birth control clinics in Toronto and Windsor, but as a result of higher costs and a smaller number of clients that could be reached, these clinics were closed in favor of the home visiting service. The Parents’ Information Bureau was still operating in 1966 when Canada’s House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Health and Welfare held public hearings on birth control. The committee recommended that birth control be removed from the Criminal Code, that the wording of the Food and Drugs Act be amended to include contraceptive devices, and that control over marketing and advertising of contraceptives should be included in the Food and Drugs Act regulations. Such a bill was finally passed in 1969.