Starting in the 1830s, a state-by-state drive to prohibit abortion developed and was largely successful by 1880. It was spurred by a backlash against the women's rights movement that reflected anxieties about women deserting their conventional position as mothers, and by professionalizing physicians eager to restrict their competition from "irregular" practitioners, many of them offering abortion services. Then in 1873 all birth-control information was specifically included within the definition of the obscene and was therefore barred from interstate commerce by the federal Comstock Act. Nevertheless the steady decline of the U.S. birthrate in the nineteenth century suggests that some traditional birth-control methods were widely used despite legal prohibition, notably, abortion, coitus interrupts, and douches. Stronger in the United States were birth-control programs rooted in antebellum reform movements, both secular and religious. They advocated birth control to control population, to prevent the spread of hereditary disease, to improve the hereditary "stock" (early versions of eugenics), to liberate women from reproductive drudgery, and sometimes to permit greater sexual freedom. In the 1820s, neo-Malthusian ideas were integrated into the experimental socialism associated with Robert Dale Owen and feminist Frances Wright. These secular socialists were soon joined by religious radicals who also promoted birth control, but in different forms. The Second Great Awakening had given rise to a "perfectionist" mode of thought—heretical in relation to orthodox forms of Protestantism because it emphasized the possibility of perfecting earthly life. Also committed to improving women's condition and public health generally, these religious socialists rejected contraception as artificial and instead tried to effect birth control by changing the nature of sexual activity itself. For example, the Oneida community in the 1840s, ruled autocratically by John Humphrey Noyes, practiced male continence, a regimen in which men refrained from ejaculation altogether, and reproductive sex was practiced only by couples appointed by Noyes for the purpose of breeding superior people. He and his supporters believed that male continence not only built self-discipline but heightened sexual pleasure. In the second half of the century, "Free Lovers&... ... middle of paper ... ... The following debate took place in New York City in 1920, Margaret Sanger and Winter Russell addressed the issues: “Resolved, that the spreading of birth control knowledge to the welfare of humanity.” Freedom of speech was an issue that had got Winter Russell, A New York City attorney, in trouble on the eve of World War 1. His disavowal of military preparedness and his espousal of pacifism on Christian grounds were cause for considerable official and public censure. Yet, when it came to contraception, he implied that restricting the flow of information served a higher good. While Russell’s rhetoric is more emotional than Sanger’s they both asserted “scientific” claims. Russell declared it a “law of nature” that there could be no pleasure without cost, and that it was akin to alchemy to think otherwise. Russell depicted a world of Darwinian struggle that limited human freedom and happiness. Sanger appealed less to scientific metaphors and more to scientific method. She argued her case fully in the style of the Progressive Era: fact-laden, scientific, and analytical. She now spoke in terms of middle-class reform, not working-class or feminist rebellion.
Dorothy Wardell’s article titled “Margaret Sanger: Birth Control’s Successful Revolutionary” explains what inspired Sanger ideas on contraception and what problems she faced while working to change the notions and laws on Birth Control. The central argument presented by Wardell is that Sanger’s efforts led to privileges for women’s bodies and health centers providing methods for women to act on these privileges (Wardell, 736). Although Wardell is effective in supporting her argument, it would be stronger if she included some historical context and evidence of Sanger’s opinion in her own words found in a speech of hers and in Family Limitation.
McLaren, Angus. Birth control and abortion in canada, 1870–1920. Canadian Historical Review Volume 59 (3): 319-40.
"A free race cannot be born" and no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"(Sanger A 35). Margaret Sanger (1870-1966)said this in one of her many controversial papers. The name of Margaret Sanger and the issue of birth control have virtually become synonymous. Birth control and the work of Sanger have done a great deal to change the role of woman in society, relationships between men and woman, and the family. The development and spread of knowledge of birth control gave women sexual freedom for the first time, gave them an individual identity in society and a chance to work without fearing they were contributing to the moral decline of society by leaving children at home. If birth control and Sanger did so much good to change the role of women in society why was birth control so controversial?
Subsequently, the provided documents on the birth control movement did show the push and pull factors of the complicated and multifaceted debate. Americas push towards industrial growth, and technology demanded that the subsequent progressive reforms were needed for a society ushering in a new era. At the same time, fear and reluctance to abandon tradition and religious custom acted as the pulling factor. The birth control debate was a complicated and heavily charged debate teemed in religious, social, political, and racial rhetoric. Historical documents help shed new light on the things taken for granted today, even the most seemingly innocuous things like birth control were fought for, so that men and women today could be in charge of their own destinies.
Abortions have been performed for thousands of years. In the 1800s abortions began to be outlawed. The reasons for anti-abortion laws varied for each state. Some people did not want the world to be dominated by newly arrived immigrants. Abortion in the 1800s were very unsafe due to the fact that the doctors had a limited educations and hospitals were not common. The outlawing of abortions from 1880 to 1973 led to many woman attempting illgeal abortions. (add author). Almost two hundred women died from attempting illegal abortions in 1965. Between two hundred thousand and one million illegal abortions were given each year. In states where local laws restrict the availability of abortion, women tend to have the lowest level of education and income. Additionally, in those states, less money goes toawrds education, welfare, fostercare programs, and adoption services. (Anderson, 5).
This lecture on the Pill will focus on the introduction, controversies, and outcome of women’s control of contraception during the mid 20th century. It will also discuss how the Pill became an influential stepping-stone for women activists. I chose to focus this discussion on three questions. First, what did the Pill teach us about the role of women in the middle 20th century? Second, what were the arguments for and against the Pill? Lastly, how safe was the Pill and what effects did women experience from taking it? By centering in on these questions, I hope to provide insight on the struggles women faced before and after this birth control technology became readily available to women in the United States.
It was unethical and caused many medical problems. One of the first states to prohibit the practice of abortion was Connecticut in 1821. They wanted many places who performed these practices to restrict using toxic material to cause abortions. After this law passed, many states followed in suit. The next ruling to pass was the Comstock law in 1873. This law banned materials that were relative to abortion and contraception from being passed out to women. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the rate of illegal abortions have increased. Many women did not want to have the burden of having a child during economic stress within the country. Due to many doctors practicing dangerous abortions, the number of death tolls were high. By the 1940s, the death toll had declined. During the 1950s, hospitals within the country started to decide if doctors should perform abortion by using therapeutic abortion boards, allowed by law only if the mother’s life was in any danger. Mortality rates decreased during this time, due to the introduction of antibiotics in the
Until the mid 1800s, abortion was unrestricted and unregulated in the United States. The justifications for criminalizing it varied from state to state. One big reason was population control, which addressed fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly ...
During the early 1900s, American nurse Margaret Sanger led the birth-control movement in the United States. She and others opened clinics to provide women with information and devices. Although frequently jailed, she and her followers were instrumental in getting laws changed. In subsequent years, laws against birth control gradually weakened, and more effective methods were developed.
In 1965, all fifty states in the United States banned abortion; however, that was only the beginning of the controversy that still rages today (Lewis 1). After abortion was officially banned in the United States, groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League worked hard on a plan to once again legalize abortion in the United States (Lewis 1). It wasn’t until 1970 when the case of Roe (for abortion) v. Wade (against abortion) was brought to the Supreme Court (Lewis 2).... ... middle of paper ...
In the later half of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, many states adopted laws against abortion because abortions were performed in unsanitary conditions, which made the operation dangerous for women. Plus, society believed killing a possible life was immoral. However, as time progressed and morals changed, people begin to question weather or not the government had the right to interfere with peoples’ carnal matters.
In 1900 a law was passed banning women from having an abortion. Before 1900, abortions were a common practice and usually performed by a midwife, but doctors saw this as a financial threat and pushed for a law making abortions illegal. From 1900 until 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a women’s right to have an abortion, women who wanted to have an abortion did so secretly. These secret abortions were performed
Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age where Sanger presented this speech, November 1921, women were considered very far from equal and much closer to servants or maids. In her speech, I saw that ethos was present in the sense that she gave herself credibility. Through Sanger’s detailed words and actions, and her statements including the presence of scientists and, or, professionals, the masses of listening people could infer that she was very well informed and solid in her statements. Though she presented herself as agreeable, Sanger was firm in her beliefs. In addition, Sanger says, “We desire to stop at its source the disease, poverty and feeble-mindedness and insanity which exist today, for these lower the standards of civilization and make for race deterioration. We know that the masses of people are growing wiser and are using their own minds to decide their individual conduct” (Sanger, par.15). To me, Sanger made herself appeal to the audience by using the word ‘we.’ In the practice of ethos, this focused on the author more than...
The Roaring Twenties were known as a time of economic boom, pop culture and social developments. This was a time when women began to break norms, they acted rebelliously such as wearing releveling clothing, smoking, and drinking. These women were known as “flappers” who wanted to change their roles in the 1920’s. Birth control activist, Margaret Sanger sought to change the world where women had access to a low cost, effective contraception pill. In “The Morality of Birth Control” Sanger battled opponents who claimed that contraception would cause women to become immoral. The author uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and fallacies to back up her claim while touching on issues in the church, advancements of women, and the source of disease in the world.
"People and Events: The Pill and the Sexual Revolution." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.