Chamberlain–Kahn Act
US Federal public health law
The Chamberlain–Kahn Act of 1918 is a U.S. federal law passed on July 9, 1918, by the 65th United States Congress. The law implemented a public health program that came to be known as the American Plan, whose stated goal was to combat the spread of venereal disease.
The Chamberlain–Kahn Act gave the government the power to quarantine any woman suspected of having a sexually transmitted disease (STD). A medical examination was required, and if it revealed an STD, this discovery could constitute proof of prostitution. The purpose of this law was to prevent the spread of venereal diseases among U.S. soldiers. During World War I, the American Plan authorized the military to arrest any woman within five miles of a military cantonment. If found infected, a woman could be sentenced to a hospital or a "farm colony" until cured. By the end of the war 15,520 women had been imprisoned, most having never received medical hospitalization.
The act is named for Senator George Earle Chamberlain of Oregon and Representative Julius Kahn of California.
Historical context
The United States entered World War I with an undersized army, resulting in the first compulsory military draft since the American Civil War.
The public source identifies “Chamberlain–Kahn Act” as uS Federal public health law. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chamberlain, Kahn and Federal.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chamberlain–Kahn Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.