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birth control from 1960 to present
the legalization of birth control
the legalization of birth control
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Why has my vagina along with every other woman 's been such a controversial topic for all of these years? That is my vagina and she likes her privacy! My vagina and her ancestors were given rules and guidelines to follow created mostly by men. Men, the species with a penis, the same people that have never experienced monthly menstruation, nor have they ever pushed a human being out of their bodies! I, personally, have not experienced labor either, but if it weren 't for Annie Besant and several other feminists, I probably would have by now.
It isn 't easy being a vagina, nor is it easy to possess one. Life as we know it would not exist without them, which is probably why people have been fighting over the rights of them for so long. (Those
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Through time, this included several factors such as the use of contraceptives. Before the legalization of birth control, condoms, and abortions, women all over were getting abortions done illegally in the streets. The human population was out of control and it was hard for women to stay at home and be a mother while also going to work. Yes, women were working at home and for a wage to support their families. Many women would send their children to work as well because the income of both parents was not enough to support them. Since many families prior to the industrial age did not have to buy the new technologies that were suppose to help with household chores, they spent less money on those things and put more time and effort in to make them. Well since the industrialization happened, women were forced to work, making the desire for children weaken due to the lack of ability to support several children. After the arrest of Annie Besant, the need for birth control became more relevant to the public and later resulted in the legalization of birth control. This was a huge change in reproductive rights because prior to the legalization of birth control, people weren’t even allowed to talk about birth control in public and even in some households. With this came the vulcanization of rubber resulting in more affordable condoms for men and women. Women were …show more content…
I am proud to say that I am currently a student in college, I am on birth control, I am with a guy that respects the rights that I have to my own body and we always discuss how we will split the responsibilities of having our own place and possibly children equally. Without the fight for equal rights that our vagina’s ancestors suffered through, I would probably be cooking dinner while breast-feeding my child right now. I would be wearing a dress with my hair done the way my husband likes it. I would be stressed out and craving sex but believing that I have a common form of “hysteria”. I would not know that sex is fun and pleasing. I would have never kissed a girl in college because that wasn’t the modest thing to do, and I would have to spend the rest of my life wondering why my husband’s quality of life is superior to mine.
Although there are endless issues to be addressed involving the equal rights of men and women, I would be sitting here until my ass rotted away if I wrote about all of them. I decided to write about the reproductive rights of women because I was completely unaware about it all until taking Introduction to Women’s Studies in college this year. Being a birth control and condom user, I was horrified with the fight women had to go through in previous years to gain access to these
Although birth control and other forms of contraceptives did not fully become legal until the 1960’s they had been developed nearly seventy years earlier in the forms the are still prevalent today (Birth Control in America). The modern condom, or “...rubber was invented in 1870, but [it] was not the thin latex type…” that is currently prevalent in our society (Hoag Levins 2). An early form of the birth control pill, which Margaret Sanger advocated, was also in existence in the very late 1800’s (Birth Control in America). Contraception was considered an ethical issue, in that the majority of Americans believed it was a form of abortion and therefor it was considered amoral (Birth Control in America). The laws of Sanger's day “...forced women into celibacy on one hand, or abortion on the other" (Sanger B 3). Why did it take so long to spread and legalize something with the potential to better the lives and life styles of women and families in the early 1900’s? It could be partially attributed to the attitude of politicians of the time. President Theodore Roosevelt said "...that the American people would be committing racial suicide"(Birth Control in America). Roosevelt shared a belief, held by the majority of politicians at the time, that families of America should act, as Roosevelt put it "servants of the state; and should provide Children to build national st...
Internationally, issues revolving around the female body and reproduction are extremely controversial. For a woman, her body is a very private matter. At the same time, however, a woman's body and her reproduction rights are the center of attention in many public debates. Several questions regarding women's reproductive rights remain unanswered. How much control do women have over their bodies? What kind of rules can be morally imposed upon women? And who controls the bodies of women? Although the public continues to debate these topics, certain conclusions can been made concerning women and their reproductive rights. An undeniable fact is that government has a large degree of control over female reproductive organs. All around the world, time and time again, several national governments have implemented policies, enacted laws, and denied women control over their reproductive organs. Several governments have crossed the border between intimate and public matters concerning women's reproductive organs, by making laws about contraceptives, abortion, and family planning programs.
All social classes of women suffered from the ban on birth control devices and information. Though, the working class suffered the most. Working class women were poorly educated and had little to no access to health care and their cultural and religious beliefs taught them to be obedient and to not deny sex to their husbands.[6] Though, they were “Denied information from the medical establishment on birth control and fearing contraception as well, made working-class women resort to crude and often deadly methods of abortion to end their unwanted pregnancies.” [6] Dangerous self-induced abortions led to death, permanent damage and/or comas. Without Progressive activists like Sanger and Goldman, women would not have the sexual freedoms that they have today. The birth control movement forced Americans to open their eyes and see the need for contraceptive devices and educational information pertaining to their bodies. Birth control meant freedom for women. The freedom to decide when was the right time for them to have children and to decide how many children they wanted to have. Birth control clinics educated women about their bodies and gave them choices in the matter of pregnancies. Clinics gathered extensive research and information, which led to greater advances and knowledge in the medical
Even to this day, women have not reached maximum equality, but the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade has helped the women’s equality movement drastically take a step in the right direction. Prior to the case, women had their rights very limited and restricted. Everyone was and still is entitled to their basic rights, however pregnant women were not. Their first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and fourteenth amendment rights were violated and were not addressed until Jane Roe testified in court. The decision made by the court still has a lasting impact even to this day. The landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was not just a win for Jane Roe, but a win for all women as it helped break the barrier that surrounded women’s equality.
The era of I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver and Father knows Best, brought about a time where family values were necessary, family life was wonderful and no one was worrying about politics and the Cold War. These families had the molds of women constrained in the home, men bringing home the bacon and all in the homes of white middle class families. Women in the 1950s were often depicted as dependent on men and were encouraged to get married young. (Bloom and Breines, 6) It took large media input from movie stars like Marilyn Monroe, to influence many women to join the workforce and reject the “traditional feminine roles”. (Bloom and Breines 6) This mold would be challenged by the introduction of the Birth Control pill in 1954 and the growing unhappiness of women who would seek to break the walls that trapped their mothers. (Bloom and Breines, 5) More women would venture out of the homes and into the workplace between the two decades, “from 25 percent in 1950to 32 percent in 1960”. (Bloom and Breines, 5) The introduction of the Birth Control pill allowed for women to avoid unwanted pregnancies or even marriages and encouraged the sexual liberation that would be seen in the sixties.
In her article “Should There Be Only Two Sexes,” Anne Fausto-Sterling discusses the implications of this genital surgery. She states that infantile genital surgery “causes extensive scarring, requires multiple surgeries, and often obliterates the possibility of orgasm” (80). Fausto-Sterling explains the consequences of these surgeries in order to argue against them. She instead says that intersex individuals should be allowed to make their own decisions regarding their bodies after being well-informed about the choices they have. The individuals interviewed in the documentary confirm the consequences Fausto-Sterling discusses and her conclusion. One person discusses how doctors had removed her clitoris and performed multiple surgeries to widen her vagina during her youth; however, these surgeries have caused sex to be painful and eliminated the possibility of orgasm. Another individual talks about how multiple childhood surgeries had led to significant pain and infections, resulting in scarring. These stories are not uncommon among the interviewed individuals, and all of them express the belief that genital surgery should be a choice made by the intersex individual later in life rather than by others early in life. While they concede that some intersex individuals may feel differently,
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 ...
Birth Control has always been a topic of controversy in America, generating large opposition and actions to regulate it. The regulation of any form of birth control was made final with the Comstock Act being passed in 1873 that was a, “federal law that made it a crime to sell or distribute materials that could be used for contraception or abortion”. This act created by and enacted by Anthony Comstock, caused a long and troubling path for feminists attempting to break the patriarchal society and gain the freedom to control their own bodies and choices. The virdict was supported throughout the years and by the 1950s many opinions of religious people, political persons, and most men who accepted traditional gender roles continued on the path of
[11] Raymonds, Janice G.. "Reproduction, population, technology and rights." Women in Action Journal. 2:1998 back
The battle for women’s reproductive rights is similar to the struggle for African Americans to have “the full liberty of speech in public and private” as Dredd Scott found out in 1865 when he petitioned for his personal freedom from slavery and lost. Moreover women’s reproductive rights are akin to defending the rights of racial equality, civil rights, desegregation, same sex marriage, and universal human rights. Every individual should have the right to choose how to live his or her private life in today’s society without governmental interference or control.
Abortion alone has been a headache for the main society going back to dates in the mid 1800’s and 1900’s where most abortion laws where outlawed, however it still did not stop the larger percentage of pregnancies that where happing. In the 1960’s there was a particular case that the Supreme Court introduced the a "right to privacy" in Griswold v. Connecticut, as it struck down laws that banned the sale of condoms to married people.
Women’s reproductive rights are a global issue in today’s world. Women have to fight to have the right to regulate their own bodies and reproductive choices, although in some countries their voices are ignored. Abortion, sterilization, contraceptives, and family planning services all encompass this global issue of women’s reproductive rights.
All things considered, abortion will always be a controversial issue in which there will always be a debate on; however, it is crucial for women to have other options rather than to only be able to have children that they cannot afford, or to allow more children to be placed in an adoption system that can essentially prevent them from having a full and happy life. It is atrocious to keep forcing people to endure unwanted pregnancies that may cause them to turn to unsafe abortion methods if their reproductive rights are abolished.
Sex education has been a taboo subject for a long time, even out of schools. Usually an ignored topic of discussion, when adults would be asked such questions by younger individuals the answers were usually misinformation and complex euphemisms. This strategy, use merely so the adult avoided embarrassing themselves, would only further confuse the person asking and it would not even answer the original question. Such examples include babies being brought to the parents by a stork, the birds and the bees, and naming the sexual organs after objects. Due to culture, such customs have been hard to get rid of and improve upon, especially with many of this shame originating from organized religion. In recent years though, conservatism on this education
Many believe sex and gender are the same but in reality they differ greatly. Gender takes in consideration what groups deem as normal behavior for a male and female. But sex is what your body parts consist of, your reproduction organs and a penis or vagina (Henslin, 2015, p. 291). You come into this world with a sex, but the world around you influences whether you choose to express yourself in a feminine or masculine way. Where you are in the world impacts what you and your society view as correct behavior for men and women.