The birth control movement in the United States was a social reform campaign from 1914 to about 1945 aimed at increasing the availability of contraception in the US through education and legalization. The movement began in 1914 when a group of radical politics in New York City, led by Emma Goldman, Mary Dennett, and Margaret Sanger, became concerned about the difficulties that childbirth and self-induced abortion brought to low-income women. Sanger, in particular, simultaneously sought to connect birth control with organized eugenic movements, regularly attracting the authority of Karl Pearson's eugenic scientists, Charles Davenport, and others in his Birth Control Review from the early 1920s. numbers are sought to prevent segments of the population they deem genetically 'undesirable' from reproducing. While seeking legitimacy for the partial birth control movement through organized eugenic approval, Sanger and other activists also work on the political front. Because contraception was considered indecent at the time, activists targeted the Comstock law, which prohibited the distribution of "obscene, obscene, and/or nasty" material by mail. Hoping to provoke a lucrative legal decision, Sanger deliberately violated the law by distributing The Woman Rebel , a bulletin containing a discussion on contraception. In 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, but the clinic was immediately shut down by police, and Sanger was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
The main turning point for the movement occurred during World War I, when many US soldiers were diagnosed with venereal disease. The government's response includes an anti-sexual campaign that frames sexual intercourse and contraception as a public health issue and a legitimate topic of scientific research. This is the first time that US government agencies have been involved in ongoing public discussion of sexual matters; as a result, contraception changes from a moral issue into a public health problem.
Driven by changes in public attitudes toward birth control, Sanger opened a second birth control clinic in 1923, but this time there was no arrest or controversy. Throughout the 1920s, public discussion about contraception became more common, and the term "birth control" became steady in the national language. The widespread availability of contraception marks the transition from the more restrictive sexual customs of the Victorian era to a more sexually permissive society.
The legal victory of the 1930s continued to weaken anti-contraceptive laws. The success of the court motivated the American Medical Association in 1937 to adopt contraception as a core component of the medical school curriculum, but the medical community was slow to accept this new responsibility, and women continued to rely on unsafe and ineffective contraceptive suggestions from inadequate sources information. In 1942, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America was formed, creating a national birth control clinic network. After World War II, the movement to legalize birth control came to a gradual conclusion, as birth control was fully accepted by the medical profession, and the remaining anti-contraceptive laws were no longer enforced.
Video Birth control movement in the United States
Contraception in the nineteenth century
Birth control practice
The practice of birth control was common throughout the United States before 1914, when the movement to legalize contraception began. Long-term techniques include rhythm method, withdrawal, diaphragm, contraceptive sponge, condoms, long-term breastfeeding, and spermicide. The use of contraceptives increased throughout the nineteenth century, contributing to a 50 percent decline in fertility rates in the United States between 1800 and 1900, especially in urban areas. The only known surveys conducted during the nineteenth century American women's contraceptive practices were conducted by Clelia Mosher from 1892 to 1912. The survey was based on a small sample of upper-class women, and showed that most women use contraception (mainly douching, but also withdrawal, rhythm, condom and pessary) and that they view sex as a pleasant act that can be done without the purpose of procreation.
Although contraception is relatively common in middle and upper class society, this topic is rarely discussed in public. The first book published in the United States that ventured to discuss contraception was Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Quick Review of Population Questions, published by Robert Dale Owen in 1831. This book suggests that family planning is a commendable endeavor, and that sexual satisfaction - without reproductive purpose - is immoral. Owen recommends the withdrawal, but he also discusses sponges and condoms. The book was followed by the Fruits of Philosophy: The Private Companion of Young Married People, written in 1832 by Charles Knowlton, who recommended douching. Knowlton was tried in Massachusetts on charges of obscenity, and served three months in jail.
Birth control practices were generally adopted earlier in Europe than in the United States. Knowlton's book was reprinted in 1877 in England by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant, with the aim of challenging UK obscenity laws. They were arrested (and later released) but the publicity of their trials contributed to the formation, in 1877, of the Malthus League - the world's first-born advocacy group - which sought to limit population growth to avoid the dreadful prediction of Thomas Malthus against the exponential population. growth that causes poverty and hunger worldwide. By 1930, similar societies had been established in virtually all European countries, and birth control began to gain acceptance in most Western European countries, except for Irish Catholics, Spanish and French. When birth control societies spread throughout Europe, so did birth control clinics. The world's first birth control clinic was established in the Netherlands in 1882, run by the first Dutch lady doctor, Aletta Jacobs. The first birth control clinic in England was founded in 1921 by Marie Stopes, in London.
Anti-contraceptive laws apply
Contraception was legal in the United States for most of the nineteenth century, but in the 1870s the social purity movement grew in strength, aimed at banning representatives in general, and prostitution and obscenity in particular. Consisting mainly of Protestant moral reformers and middle-class women, the Victorian era campaign also attacks contraception, which is seen as an immoral practice that promotes prostitution and venereal disease. Anthony Comstock, postal inspector and leader in purity movements, successfully lobbied for passing the Comstock Act of 1873, federal law prohibiting the transmission of "articles or anything designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procurement of abortion" as well. as any form of contraceptive information. Many states also passed similar state laws (collectively known as the Comstock law), sometimes extending federal laws by prohibiting the use of contraceptives, as well as their distribution. Comstock is proud of the fact that he is personally responsible for the thousands of arrests and destruction of hundreds of tons of books and pamphlets.
Comstock and his allies also aim for a libertarian and utopian comprising the free love movement - an initiative to promote sexual freedom, equality for women, and the abolition of marriage. Proponents of free love are the only group that actively opposed the Comstock law in the 19th century, setting the stage for the birth control movement.
The efforts of the free love movement were unsuccessful and, in the early 20th century, federal and state governments began to enact more stringent Comstock laws. In response, contraception runs underground, but it does not go out. The number of publications on the topic is reduced, and advertising, if they are found at all, uses euphemisms such as "marriage aids" or "hygienic tools". Drugstores continue to sell condoms as "rubber goods" and cervical caps as "supporting uterus".
Maps Birth control movement in the United States
Free greeting gestures
At the turn of the century, an energetic movement emerged, centered on Greenwich Village, which sought to overturn the ban on free speech. Supported by radicals, feminists, anarchists, and atheists such as Ezra Heywood, Moses Harman, DM Bennett and Emma Goldman, these activists regularly oppose anti-obscenity laws and, later, the government's efforts to suppress critical speeches against involvement in World War I Before 1914, the movement of freedom of speech focused on politics, and rarely discussed contraception.
Goldman's circle of radicals, socialists, and bohemians joined in 1912 by a nurse, Margaret Sanger, whose mother had been through 18 pregnancies in 22 years, and died at the age of 50 years of tuberculosis and cervical cancer. In 1913, Sanger worked on the Lower East Side of New York, often with poor women suffering from frequent childbirth and self-induced abortions. After a tragic medical case, Sanger wrote: "I threw my nursing bag in the corner and announced... that I will never take another case until I allow women working in America to have the knowledge to control birth." Sanger visited public library, searching for information about contraception, but nothing is available. He became angry because working class women could not get contraception, but upper class women who had access to a personal doctor could.
Under the influence of Goldman and Free Speech League, Sanger became determined to challenge the Comstock law prohibiting the dissemination of contraceptive information. With that goal, in 1914 he launched The Woman Rebel, an eight-page monthly newsletter promoting contraception using the slogan "No Gods, No Masters", and stated that every woman should be "the absolute mistress of her own body. "Sanger coined the term birth control , which first appeared on the Rebel page , as a more open alternative to euphemisms such as family restrictions.
Sanger's goal to challenge the law was fulfilled when he was indicted in August 1914, but prosecutors focused their attention on the article Sanger wrote about murder and marriage, rather than contraception. Afraid that he might be sent to prison without a chance to argue for birth control in court, he fled to England to avoid arrest.
While Sanger was in Europe, her husband continued his work, which led to his arrest after he handed out a copy of a birth control pamphlet to an undercover postal worker. His arrest and 30-day prison sentences prompted several major publications, including Harper's Weekly and New-York Tribune, to publish articles on the birth control controversy. Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman toured the country, speaking to support the Sangers, and distributing copies of the Sanger Family Limitation pamphlet. Sanger's exile and her husband's arrest prompted the movement of birth control to the forefront of American news.
Organization of early birth control
In the spring of 1915 the supporters of the Sangers - led by Mary Dennett - formed the National Birth Control League (NBCL), which was the first American-born birth control organization. Throughout 1915, smaller regional organizations were formed in San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
Sanger returned to the United States in October 1915. He planned to open a birth control clinic modeled at the world's first clinic, which he visited in Amsterdam. He first had to fight a tremendous charge against him. Leading attorney Clarence Darrow offered to defend Sanger for free but, subject to public pressure, the government withdrew the charges in early 1916. No longer under threat of imprisonment, Sanger embarked on a successful cross-country speaking tour, which catapulted him into the leadership of the US-born birth control movement. Other prominent figures, such as William J. Robinson and Mary Dennett, choose to work in the background, or divert their attention to other causes. Then in 1916, Sanger traveled to Boston to lend his support to the Massachusetts Birth Control League and imprison the birth control activist of Van Kleeck Allison.
First birth control clinic
During Sanger's 1916 speaking tour he promoted birth control clinics based on the Dutch model he observed during his 1914 trip to Europe. Although he inspired many local communities to create a birth control league, no clinics were established. Therefore Sanger decided to create a birth control clinic in New York that will provide free contraceptive services to women. New York state legislation prohibits the distribution of contraception or even contraceptive information, but Sanger hopes to exploit the provisions in the law that allow doctors to prescribe contraceptives for disease prevention. On October 16, 1916, he, in partnership with Fania Mindell and Ethel Byrne, opened the Brownsville clinic in Brooklyn. The clinic was immediately successful, with more than 100 women visiting on the first day. A few days after the opening, an undercover policewoman bought a neck hat at the clinic, and Sanger was arrested. Refusing to walk, Sanger and co-workers were dragged out of the clinic by police officers. The clinic was closed, and it was not until 1923 that another birth control clinic was opened in the United States.
The Sanger trial began in January 1917. He was supported by a large number of wealthy and influential women who came together to form the Hundred Committee, which was devoted to raising funds for Sanger and NBCL. The committee also began publishing the monthly journal Birth Control of Birth , and established a network of connections to powerful politicians, activists, and press figures. Despite strong support, Sanger was punished; The judge offered a light sentence if he promised not to break the law again, but Sanger replied, "I can not respect the law as it is today." He is serving a 30-day jail term.
In protest over his arrest as well, Byrne was sentenced to 30 days in prison at Blackwell Island Prison and responded to his situation with a hunger strike. With no sign of ending the demonstrations any time soon, Byrne was forced to eat by the prison guard. Frustrated and ill, Byrne refused to end his hunger strike at the cost of securing early exemption from prison. However, Sanger accepted a plea bargain on behalf of his sister, agreeing that Byrne would be released earlier than jail if he ended his birth control activitivity. Horrified, Byrne's relationship quickly eroded with his sister and, either by force or by volunteer, he abandoned the birth control movement. Because of Byrne's demonstration drama, the birth control movement made headlines where organizational goals were distributed across the country.
Other activists are also pushing for progress. Emma Goldman was arrested in 1916 for circulating birth control information, and Abraham Jacobi failed to try to persuade the New York medical community to encourage changes in the law to allow doctors to release contraceptive information.
Mainstream Receipts (1917-1923)
The publicity of the Sanger trial and the starvation strike Byrne produced tremendous enthusiasm for the cause, and by the end of 1917 there were more than 30 birth control organizations in the United States. Sanger was always smart about public relations, and he used the publicity of the trial to advance the cause. After his trial, he emerged as the most visible leader in the movement. Other leaders, such as William J. Robinson, Mary Dennett, and Blanche Ames Ames, can not match Sanger's charisma, charm, and spirit.
The movement evolved from the radical roots of the working class into a campaign supported by community women and liberal professionals. Sanger and his fellow supporters began to defuse their radical rhetoric and instead emphasized the socioeconomic benefits of birth control, a policy that led to increased acceptance by mainstream Americans. Media coverage increased, and several silent films produced in the 1910s featured birth control as a theme (including Birth Control , produced by Sanger and starred by himself).
The opposition to birth control remains strong: the state legislature refuses to legalize contraception or distribution of contraceptive information; religious leaders speak, attacking women who will choose "convenience and fashion" for motherhood; and eugenicians worry that birth control will aggravate the difference in birth rates between old "white men" and "colored people" or immigrants.
Sanger formed the New York Women's Publishing Company (NYWPC) in 1918 and, under its auspices, became the publisher for Birth Control Ovi . British voting activist Kitty Marion, standing on a street corner of New York, sold review at 20 cents per copy, enduring death threats, heckling, spitting, physical abuse, and police harassment. For the next ten years, Marion was arrested nine times for her birth control advocacy.
Legal victory
Sanger appealed his confidence in 1917 and won a mixed victory in 1918 with a unanimous decision by the New York Court of Appeal written by Judge Frederick E. Crane. Court opinions reinforce his conviction, but show that the court will be willing to allow contraception if prescribed by a doctor. This decision only applies in New York, where it opens the door for birth control clinics, under the supervision of a doctor, to be established. Sanger himself did not immediately take advantage of opportunities, wrongly assuming that the medical profession would lead; instead he focused on writing and teaching.
World War I and condom
The birth control movement received an unexpected boost during World War I, as a result of the crisis experienced by the US military when many of its soldiers were diagnosed with syphilis or gonorrhea. The military conducts broad educational campaigns, focuses on abstinence, but also offers some contraceptive guidance. The military, under pressure from supporters of purity, did not distribute condoms, or even support its use, making the US the only military force in World War I that did not supply condoms to its troops. When US troops are in Europe, they find rubber condoms available, and when they return to America, they continue to use condoms as a method of birth control that they like.
The campaign of anti-military assault marked a major turning point for the movement: this is the first time a government agency has engaged in a sustained public discussion on sexual issues. The government's public discourse of changing the sex of the secret topics becomes a valid topic of scientific research, and it changes the contraceptives of the moral problem into a public health problem.
In 1917, advocate Emma Goldman was arrested for protesting World War 1 and American conscription. Goldman's commitment to free speech on topics such as socialism, anarchism, birth control, labor/labor rights, and free love ultimately burden American citizenship and the right to live in the United States. Due to his commitment to socialist and anti-capitalism welfare, Goldman is associated with communism which led to his expulsion from the country during First Red Scare. While World War 1 caused a breakthrough in American acceptance of birth control related to public health, WW1 anti-communist propaganda sacrificed one of the most dedicated members of the birth control movement.
Legislative efforts
While an important activist and birth control leader, Mary Dennett advocated various organizations. Starting as a field secretary for the Massachusetts Women's Rights Select Association, he worked hard to win the elected seat as an appropriate secretary for the American National Women's Rights Association. Dennett leads the literary department, performing assignments such as distributing pamphlets and leaflets. After the disappointment of NAWSA's organizational structure, Dennett, as described above, helped find the National Birth Control League. The NBCL takes a strong stand against the militant protest strategy rather than focusing on state and federal law changes. During World War I, Mary Dennett focused his efforts on the peace movement, but he returned to the birth control movement in 1918. He continued to lead NBCL, and collaborated with Sanger's NYWPC. In 1919 Dennett published a widely distributed educational pamphlet, The Sex Life Section, which treats sex as a natural and enjoyable act. However, in the same year, frustrated by the lack of chronic NBCL funding, Dennett broke away and formed the Voluntary Parenthood League (VPL). Both Dennett and Sanger propose legislative changes that would legalize birth control, but they take a different approach: Sanger supports contraception but only under the supervision of a physician; Dennett encourages unlimited access to contraception. Sanger, a supporter of the diaphragm, is concerned that unrestricted access will result in an improper diaphragm and will lead to medical shamanism. Dennett worries that requiring women to get a prescription from a doctor will prevent poor women from receiving contraception, and he is concerned about the shortage of doctors trained in birth control. Both legislative initiatives fail, in part because some legislators feel that the fear of pregnancy is the only thing that keeps women holy. In the early 1920s, Sanger's leadership position in this movement compacted because he often gave public lectures, and because he took steps to exclude Dennett from meetings and events.
American Birth Control League
Although Sanger was busy publishing the Birth Control Review during 1919-1920, he was not officially affiliated with one of the major birth control organizations (NBCL or VPL) during that time. In 1921 he became convinced that he needed to get in touch with a formal body for the support of professional societies and the scientific community. Instead of joining an existing organization, he is considering creating a new one. As a first step, he hosted the First Birth Control Conference of America, held in November 1921 in New York City. On the last night of the conference, when Sanger prepared to address the crowded Town Hall theater, police raided the meeting and arrested him for disorderly conduct. From the stage he shouted: "We have the right to hold [this meeting] under the Constitution... let them side with us if they want." He was immediately released. The next day it was revealed that Patrick Joseph Hayes, Archbishop of New York, had pressed the police to close the meeting. The City Hall attack was a turning point for the movement: the opposition of the government and the medical community faded, and the Catholic Church emerged as its most vocal opponent. After the conference, Sanger and his supporters established the American Birth Control League (ABCL).
Second birth control clinic
Four years after the New York Appellate Court opened the door for doctors to prescribe contraceptives, Sanger opened a second birth control clinic, which he managed with a doctor to make it legal under the court's decision (the first clinic employed a nurse). This second clinic, the Clinical Research Bureau (CRB), opened on January 2, 1923. To avoid police harassment, the presence of clinics was not published, its primary mission was declared to undertake scientific research, and only provide services for married women. The existence of the clinic was finally announced to the public in December 1923, but this time there was no arrest or controversy. These convinced activists that, after ten years of struggle, birth control were finally widely accepted in the United States. CRB is the first legal birth control clinic in the United States, and is rapidly growing into the world's leading center for contraceptive research.
Progress and setbacks (1920s-1940s)
Broad acceptance
After the successful opening of CRB in 1923, public discussion about contraception became more common, and the term "birth control" became established in the national language. Of the hundreds of references to birth control in magazines and newspapers of the 1920s, more than two-thirds was good. The availability of contraception suggests an end to the more stringent morality of the Victorian era, and leads to the emergence of more sexually permissive societies. Other factors contributing to new sexual norms include increased mobility brought by automobile, anonymous urban lifestyle, and postwar euphoria. The sociologist who surveyed women in Muncie, Indiana in 1925 found that all upper-class women approved birth control, and more than 80 percent of working class women agreed. Birth rates in America declined 20 percent between 1920 and 1930, primarily due to increased use of contraceptives.
Opposition
Although clinics became more common in the late 1920s, the movement still faced significant challenges: The large sector of the medical community is still resistant to birth control; Supporting birth control is blacklisted by the radio industry; and state and federal laws - though generally not enforced - still prohibit the use of contraception.
The most important opponent for birth control is the Catholic Church, which mobilized opposition in many places during the 1920s. Catholics persuaded the Syracuse city council to ban Sanger from giving a speech in 1924; The National Catholic Welfare Conference lobbied against birth control; The Knights of Columbus boycott the hotels that organize birth control events; the Albany Catholic police commissioner prevented Sanger from speaking there; Boston Catholic mayor James Curley blocked Sanger from public speaking; and some newsreel companies, surrendered to pressure from Catholics, refused to cover news related to birth control. ABCL altered some boycotted events to their advantage by inviting the press, and the resulting news coverage often generated public sympathy for their purpose. However, the Catholic lobby is very effective in the legislative arena, where their argument - that contraception is unnatural, dangerous, and indecent - impedes some initiative, including an attempt by Mary Dennett in 1924 to invalidate federal anti-contraceptive laws.
Dozens of birth control clinics were opened in the United States during the 1920s, but not without incidents. In 1929, New York police raided a clinic in New York and arrested two doctors and three nurses for distributing contraceptive information unrelated to disease prevention. ABCL achieved great victory in the trial, when the judge ruled that the use of contraception for outdoor births further apart was a valid medical treatment that benefited maternal health. Courts, where many prominent doctors serve as witnesses for defense, bring a large segment of the medical community to the support side of birth control.
Eugenics and race
Before the emergence of the birth control movement, eugenics has become very popular in Europe and the US, and the subject is widely discussed in articles, films, and lectures. Eugenicists have mixed feelings about birth control: they worry that it will aggravate the difference in birth rates between "superior" and "inferior" races, but they also recognize its value as a tool for "racial improvement". Leaders of the birth control movement never regard eugenics as their primary goal, focusing on freedom of speech and women's rights, but around 1920 they begin to make common goals with eugenicists, hoping to broaden the support base of the birth control movement. Eugenics sustains the purpose of the birth control movement by linking excessive births with increasing poverty, crime and disease. Sanger published two books in the early 1920s that supported eugenics: Women and New Races and The Pivot of Civilization . Sanger and other supporters endorse "negative eugenics" (break the procreation of "inferior" people), but do not advocate euthanasia or positive eugenics (encouraging the procreation of "superior" people). However, many eugenicists refuse to support the birth control movement because of Sanger's insistence that women's primary duty is for themselves, not for the state.
Like many white Americans in the US in the 1930s, some leaders of the birth control movement believed that the higher-skinned race was superior to the dark-skinned race. They assume that African Americans are intellectually underdeveloped, will be relatively incompetent in managing their own health, and will require special scrutiny of whites. The white dominance in movement leadership and medical staff resulted in alleged racism from blacks and the suspicion that "suicide races" would be a consequence of large-scale adoption of birth control. This suspicion is misinterpreted by some supporters of white birth control due to a lack of interest in contraception.
Despite these suspicions, many African-American leaders support efforts to provide birth control to the African-American community. In 1929, James H. Hubert, a black social worker and leader of the New York Urban League, asked Sanger to open a clinic in Harlem. Sanger obtained funding from Dana Julius Rosenwald and opened a clinic, with staff of African-American doctors, in 1930. The clinic was guided by a 15-member counseling board composed of African-American doctors, nurses, ministers, journalists and social workers.. It was published in the African-American press and African-American churches, and received approval from W. E. B. Du Bois, founder of the National Association for the Progress of Colored Persons (NAACP). In the early 1940s, the American Birth Control Federation (BCFA) started a program called Negro Project, managed by the Negro Service (DNS) Division. Like the Harlem clinic, the main purpose of DNS and its program is to improve maternal and infant health. Based on his work at the Harlem clinic, Sanger suggests to the DNS that African-Americans are more likely to accept advice from their own race doctors, but other leaders win and insist that whites are employed in outreach efforts. Discriminatory actions and statements by movement leaders during the 1920s and 1930s have led to continuing allegations that the movement was racist.
Expand availability
Two important legal decisions in the 1930s helped to increase the accessibility of contraceptives. In 1930, two condom producers sued each other in the case of Youngs Rubber, and the judge ruled that contraception was a legitimate business enterprise. He goes further, and states that federal laws that prohibit the delivery of condoms are not legally valid. Sanger accelerated his second legal breakthrough when he ordered the diaphragm from Japan in 1932, hoping to provoke a decisive battle in court. The diaphragm was confiscated by the US government, and subsequent legal challenges from Sanger resulted in the legal decision of One Package by Judge Augustus Hand. Her decision to nullify the crucial provisions of anti-contraceptive laws that prohibit doctors from getting contraception. This court victory motivated the American Medical Association in 1937 to finally adopt contraception as a normal medical service and a core component of the medical school curriculum. However, the medical community is slow to accept this new responsibility, and women continue to rely on unsafe and ineffective contraceptive advice from unfamiliar sources until the 1960s.
In 1938, more than 400 contraceptive manufacturers in the business, more than 600 brands of female contraceptives are available, and industry revenues exceed $ 250 million per year. Condoms are sold in vending machines in some public toilets, and men spend twice as much on condoms as in shaving. Although condoms have become commonplace in the 1930s, feminists in the movement feel that birth control should be the prerogative of women, and they continue to encourage the development of contraception under the control of women, a campaign that ultimately leads to the control pill birth. several decades later. To increase the availability of high-quality contraceptives, birth control supporters established the Holland-Rantos company to produce contraceptives - especially the diaphragm, which is the method recommended by Sanger. In the 1930s, the diaphragm with spermicidal jelly has become the most commonly prescribed form of contraception; in 1938, female contraception accounted for 85 percent of annual contraceptive sales.
Planned Parenthood
The 1936 One Package court battle was brought together two birth control organizations - ABCL and Birth Control Clinical Birth Control Bureau (formerly CRB) - who have joined forces to devise successful defense efforts. The leaders of both groups saw this as an advantageous time to combine the two organizations, so, in 1937, the American Birth Control Board, under the leadership of Sanger, was formed to consolidate. The effort eventually led to the merging of both organizations in 1939 as the American Birth Control Federation (BCFA). Although Sanger continued in the role of president, he no longer used the same powers as in the early years of the movement, and, in 1942, more conservative forces within the organization changed their name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a name Sanger objected to him consider it too subtle. After World War II, Planned Parenthood leadership did not emphasize radical feminism and shifted focus to more moderate themes such as family planning and population policies.
The movement to legalize birth control comes to a gradual conclusion around the time Planned Parenthood is formed. In 1942, there were more than 400 birth control organizations in America, contraception was fully embraced by the medical profession, and the Comstock anti-contraceptive laws (which still remain in the book) were rarely enforced.
Legalization and after
After World War II, advocacy of reproductive rights was shifted to a new era focusing on abortion, public funding, and insurance protection.
Birth control advocacy also takes on a global aspect when organizations around the world begin to collaborate. In 1946, Sanger helped establish the International Committee on Planned Parenthood, which evolved into the International Planned Parenthood Federation and soon became the largest international international non-governmental family planning organization. In 1952, John D. Rockefeller III established an influential Population Council. The fear of global population surplus became a major problem in the 1960s, raising concerns about pollution, food shortages, and quality of life, leading to well-funded childbirth control campaigns around the world. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the Fourth World Conference of 1995 on Women discusses birth control and influences human rights declarations that affirm women's rights to control their own bodies.
In the early 1950s in the United States, philanthropist Katharine McCormick provided funding to biologist Gregory Pincus to develop birth control pills, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1960. The pill became very popular and had a huge impact. on society and culture. This contributes to a sharp increase in college attendance and graduation rates for women. New forms of intrauterine devices were introduced in the 1960s, increasing the popularity of long-term reversible contraceptives.
In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that it is unconstitutional for governments to ban married couples from using birth control.
In 1967 activist Bill Baird was arrested for distributing contraceptive and condom foams to a student during a lecture on birth control and abortion at Boston University. Baird's appeal of his conviction resulted in the case of the United States Supreme Court Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), which extends Griswold to hold on to unmarried couples, and thus legalize birth control for all Americans.
In 1970, Congress finally abolished references to contraception from federal anti-obscenity laws; and in 1973, the decision of Roe v. Wade legalizes abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Also in 1970, Title X of the Public Health Service Act was enacted as part of the war on poverty, to make family planning and preventive health services available for low-income and non-insured persons. Without publicly funded family planning services, according to the Guttmacher Institute, the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions in the United States would be almost two-thirds higher; the number of unwanted pregnancies amongst poor women will almost double. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, publicly funded family planning saves almost $ 4 in Medicaid fees for every $ 1 spent on services.
In 1982, European drugmakers developed mifepristone, which was originally used as a contraceptive, but is now commonly prescribed with prostoglandins to induce abortion in pregnancy until the fourth month of pregnancy. To avoid a consumer boycot organized by an anti-abortion organization, the manufacturer contributed US manufacturing rights to Danco Laboratories, a company formed by pro-choice advocates, with the sole purpose of distributing mifepristone in the US, and thus immune to boycott effects..
In 1997, the FDA approved a prescription emergency contraceptive pill (known as the morning-after pill), which became available on the table in 2006. In 2010, ulipristal acetate, a more effective emergency contraception approved for use up to five days after intercourse unattended. Fifty to sixty percent of pregnant abortion patients in circumstances where emergency contraception may be used. These emergency contraceptives, including Plan B and EllaOne, are proving to be another battlefield in the war against reproductive rights. Opponents of emergency contraception consider it a form of abortion, as it may interfere with the ability of the fertilized embryo to be planted in the womb; while proponents argue that it is not an abortion, because the absence of implantation means that pregnancy never begins.
In 2000, the Commission for Cooperation Opportunities decided that the companies that provided insurance for prescription drugs to their employees but did not include KB were in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on March 23, 2010. On August 1, 2011, female contraception was added to the list of preventive services covered by the ACA to be provided without payment with the patient. The federal mandate applies to all new health insurance plans in all states beginning August 1, 2012. Grandpa plans do not have to comply unless they change substantially. To be a grandfather, a group plan must exist or individual plans must be sold before President Obama signs the law; otherwise they are required to comply with the new law. The Guttmacher Institute notes that even before the federal mandate was implemented, twenty-eight states had their own mandates that required health insurance to cover contraceptives prescribed, but federated federal mandates prohibiting insurance companies from charging some of the costs to patients.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 US ___ (2014), is an important decision by the United States Supreme Court that allows non-profit corporations that are closely held to be exempt from laws that the owners object to religiously if there is a less restrictive way to advance the interests law. This is the first time the court has recognized a nonprofit company's claim to religious beliefs, but is limited to a tightly held company. The decision is an interpretation of the Freedom of Religion (RFRA) Act and does not discuss whether these companies are protected by religious freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. For these companies, the majority of Courts directly impose contraceptive mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a 5-4 vote. The court said that the mandate was not the least restrictive way to ensure access to contraceptive care, noting that less restrictive alternatives were provided for religious nonprofits, until the Court issued an order 3 days later, effectively ending the alternative, replacing it with a government sponsored alternative for every female employee of a closely held company that does not want to provide birth control.
Zubik v. Burwell is a case before the United States Supreme Court on whether religious institutions other than church should be released from the mandate of contraception. The churches have been released. On May 16, 2016, the US Supreme Court issued its decision per curiam at Zubik v. Burwell which vacates the Court of Appeal's decision and returns the case "to the United States Court of Appeals relating to the Third, Fifth, Tenth, and DC Circuit" for a review in the light of "positions affirmed by the parties in their supplementary summary". Since the Petitioners agree that "their religious practice is not violated where they" need to do nothing but contract for a plan that does not include coverage for some or all forms of contraception '", the Court stated that the parties should be given an opportunity to clarify and refine the way this approach will work in practice and to "solve extraordinary problems." The Supreme Court declared "no view of the merits of those cases." In the same opinion, Judge Sotomeyer, who is a member of Justice Ginsburg noted that in the previous case " some lower courts have disregarded the instruction "and warned the lower court not to read any signal in the Supreme Court action in this case.
In 2017, the Trump government passed a law allowing insurance companies and employers to refuse to give birth control if doing so contradicts their "religious beliefs" or "moral beliefs". However, later in the same year a federal judge, Wendy Beetlestone, issued an order to temporarily stop enforcement of Trump's administration rules.
See also
- Birth control in the United States
- the Comstock law
- The contraceptive mandate
- Abortion history
- Condom history
- The morning after the pill
- Timeline of reproduction rights legislation
- Social hygiene movement
Note
References
Further reading
- Selected work from era of birth control movement
External links
- The Margaret Sanger Papers at Smith College
- The Margaret Sanger Project at New York University
- "Birth Control on the Rise", Huffington Post, February 2013
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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