Abraham Stone (1890-1959), was Medical Director and later Director of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in New York City from 1941 to 1959. His research focused on marriage counseling and reproductive health issues including family planning, birth control, sterility, fertility, sexual relations, and global overpopulation. Stone was an urologist in private practice with his wife Hannah in New York City before becoming Medical Director at the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau, succeeding his wife Hannah after her death in 1941. Abraham and Hannah Stone published A Marriage Manual in 1935, one of the first publications devoted to the topic of marriage. Stone also served as vice-president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the International Planned Parenthood Federation during the 1950s, and was a founding member and president of the American Association of Marriage Counselors.
From the description of Personal and Professional Papers, 1916-1959. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 79456311
Abraham Stone (1890-1959) was Medical Director and later Director of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau (MSRB) in New York City from 1941 to 1959. The MSRB was a facility closely aligned with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), of which Stone served as vice-president during the 1950s. Under Stone's leadership from 1941 to 1959, the MSRB further assisted with PPFA fund-raising, accommodated an increased number of PPFA board members on its board of trustees, expanded its programs to include marriage counseling and infertility research, and became the clinical research arm of the PPFA.
Abraham Stone was born in Russia on 30 October 1890 and emigrated to the United States in 1905 at age 12. He received the MD from New York University and Bellevue Medical College in 1912. In 1916, he received the BS from New York University, and in 1917, he married Hannah Mayer (1893-1941), who earned a pharmacy degree from Brooklyn College in 1912 and an MD from New York Medical College and Flower Hospital in 1920. After serving as a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps in World War I, Abraham and Hannah opened a joint private medical practice. Hannah was named Medical Director of the MSRB in 1925, and garnered recognition as the clinical expert on contraception. Due to their clinical experiences in private practice, Abraham and Hannah Stone recognized the need for preventive sex education and trained numerous physicians to offer birth control services, sex counseling, and treatment of infertility. The couple also established the first marriage counseling service under medical direction in the United States at the Community Church in New York in 1931. Due to their work at the MSRB, their promotion of group therapy for treatment of marital sexual dysfunction, and the publication of A Marriage Manual in 1935, the couple actively promoted women's reproductive autonomy during the 1930s.
After Hannah's death in 1941, Abraham replaced his wife as the Medical Director of the MSRB, and was later named Director of the facility by Margaret Sanger in 1950, a position he held until his death in 1959. The MSRB, formerly known as the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, originally aligned itself with the American Birth Control League in 1939, creating the Birth Control Federation of America, later renamed the PPFA in 1942. Despite the merger, the MSRB maintained much of its independence, and renamed its clinic the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in honor of its founder, Margaret Sanger, in 1940. During Stone's tenure, he increased the services of the facility to include fertility counseling and treatment.
Aside from Stone's responsibilities at the MSRB, he remained active in other professional organizations, including the PPFA and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF); Stone served as vice-president of both organizations during the 1950s. He traveled internationally as vice-president of the IPPF lecturing to family planning groups on the importance of contraception, fertility, and marriage counseling. Stone was a founder and president of the American Association of Marriage Counselors. Other organizations and committees to which Stone belonged included the American Society for the Study of Sterility, the Intraprofessional Commission on Marriage and Divorce Laws, and the American Soviet Medical Society; membership lists, bylaws, event programs, correspondence, notes, and reprints document Stone's activities within these organizations.
During his career, Stone published several articles on topics including sexual relations, family planning, contraception, sterility, and marriage counseling. In 1935, he authored A Marriage Manual with wife Hannah. This book was one of the first published on the subject of marriage and was reprinted in several editions. Stone also published The Premarital Consultation, the first manual on marital relations written for physicians, with physician Lena Levine in 1956. He also lectured frequently to academic and popular audiences on topics including women's reproductive rights, contraception, and marriage counseling.
Abraham Stone died on 3 July 1959 of a heart attack. He was 68.
From the guide to the Papers, 1916-1959., 1916-1959 (Inclusive), 1951-1959 (Bulk), (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.)
