Pro Birth Control Essay

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Birth control has two methods. One is contraception, which prevents conception. The other is abortion, which terminates a pregnancy after conception. Once people realized the connection between coitus and pregnancy, they began to discover ways to help prevent it. The most effective way to prevent pregnancy is abstinence. Because abstinence is not popular among many people, they had to find other ways to prevent pregnancy. In the nineteenth century the popularity of contraception grew in the United States. With this increase in popularity came controversy and legal battles. A federal law was passed in 1873, known as the Comstock Law, which prohibited distribution of birth control information to be sent through the mail. This was a result of …show more content…

Charges were brought against Sanger because a magazine the National Birth Control League published called The Woman Rebel challenged the view that birth control information was obscene. Sanger fled to Europe before her trial. The charges against Sanger were dropped in 1916. At which point Sanger returned to the United States and established a birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. She was arrested as a result of the clinic and the clinic was shut down. After her release on bail she reopened the clinic. She was soon arrested and sentenced to thirty days in jail for reopening her clinic. Her appeal to the courts was successful. In 1918, the courts granted permission for physicians to distribute information to patients that could aid in the prevention of disease. This ruling created instability for the Comstock Law. Katherine Dexter McCormack, a good friend of Margaret Sanger, offered financial support for research of the use of hormones as a form of contraception. In 1960, oral contraception, known as “the pill” was available in the United States. Ms. Sanger died six years later. In 1965, the last law that remaining impediment to free use of contraception was struck down by the Supreme Court. Today, there is a plethora of information on many forms of contraception available through the internet, Planned Parenthood, and physicians. Although some are tolerant, many groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, continue to oppose

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