<P> In 1927, senior medical officers in the American military began promoting condom distribution and educational programs to members of the army and navy . By 1931, condoms were standard issue to all members of the U.S. military . This coincided with a steep decline in U.S. military cases of sexually transmitted disease . The U.S. military was not the only large organization that changed its moral stance on condoms: in 1930 the Anglican Church's Lambeth Conference sanctioned the use of birth control by married couples . In 1931 the Federal Council of Churches in the U.S. issued a similar statement . </P> <P> The Roman Catholic Church responded by issuing the encyclical Casti connubii affirming its opposition to all contraceptives, a stance it has never reversed . Semen analysis was first performed in the 1930s . Samples were typically collected by masturbation, another action opposed by the Catholic Church . In 1930s Spain, the first use of collection condoms was documented; holes put in the condom allowed the user to collect a sample without violating the prohibitions on contraception and masturbation . </P> <P> In 1932, Margaret Sanger arranged for a shipment of diaphragms to be mailed from Japan to a sympathetic doctor in New York City . When U.S. customs confiscated the package as illegal contraceptive devices, Sanger helped file a lawsuit . In 1936, a federal appeals court ruled in United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients . In 1938, over three hundred birth control clinics opened in America, supplying reproductive care (including condoms) to poor women all over the country . Programs led by U.S. Surgeon General Thoman Parran included heavy promotion of condoms . These programs are credited with a steep drop in the U.S. STD rate by 1940 . </P> <P> Two of the few places where condoms became more restricted during this period were Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany . Because of government concern about low birth rates, contraceptives were made illegal in Italy in the late 1920s . Although limited and highly controlled sales as disease preventatives were still allowed, there was a brisk black market trade in condoms as birth control . In Germany, laws passed in 1933 mandated that condoms could only be sold in plain brown wrappers, and only at pharmacies . Despite these restrictions, when World War II began Germans were using 72 million condoms every year . The elimination of moral and legal barriers, and the introduction of condom programs by the U.S. government helped condom sales . However, these factors alone are not considered to explain the Great Depression's booming condom industry . In the U.S. alone, more than 1.5 million condoms were used every day during the Depression, at a cost of over $33 million per year (not adjusted for inflation). One historian explains these statistics this way: "Condoms were cheaper than children ." During the Depression condom lines by Schmid gained in popularity: that company still used the cement - dipping method of manufacture . Unlike the latex variety, these condoms could be safely used with oil - based lubricants . And while less comfortable, older - style rubber condoms could be reused and so were more economical, a valued feature in hard times . </P>

When did condoms become legal in the us