Birth Control Movement Research Paper

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Birth Control Movement Jessica Foster June 13, 2013 Kaplan University Introduction American Women have suffered for many years to achieve the reproductive rights that they rightfully deserve. In the 1800's and early 1900's, birth control was considered an obscenity and was not talked about (DuBois & Dumenil, 2012). Throughout the years many women and men have become activists and created a new world for women to live in (DuBois & Dumenil, 2012). Sarah Stiles is one of these women who can use birth control freely and does not have to live in a society where she should be ashamed. She is a fifteen year old girl who uses birth control for medical purposes and without it she could not be normal. The birth control movement went…show more content…
Sarah Stiles is an upcoming sophomore in high school that takes birth control for medical reasons. In order to conduct the interview I had to give her information regarding the birth control movement so she could answer the questions. There was a total of seven questions asked with the first one being: Can you describe a significant historical event that you feel influenced contemporary culture? Her reply was “ Yes, the birth control movement in the late 1800's to the present day (Personal Communication, May, 2013). During the time period of the late 1800's, women were not allowed to enjoy intercourse and men did not care about the feelings of women (Personal Communication, May, 2013).The birth control movement gave women an opportunity to become independent of their choices and put them in control of when they have children (Personal Communication, May, 2013). The birth control movement has been ongoing for many years and still continues today into 2013 (Personal Communication, May, 2013). ” Another question asked was What did the Comstock law have to do with the birth control movement? The response was “The Comstock law made it to where the transportation of birth control and any information about birth control was illegal (Personal Communication, May, 2013). This was around the year of 1873 and Anthony Comstock joined the…show more content…
Instead of Sanger targeting lower class families, the Birth Control Movement shifted towards middle class familes (Engelman, 2011). Due to economic hardships there was a need for smaller familes which meant less children so birth control was accepted throughout many homes (Engelman, 2011). On November 10,1921, Sanger founded the American Birth Control League (Engelman, 2011). This league was based on reform, education, and research (Engelman, 2011). Sanger was president of the ABCL from 1921 to 1928 (Engelman, 2011). The main focus during the 1920's was to pass along information on birth control to social workers, individual women, doctors, and many more (Engelman, 2011). In order to join the league, members only asked to pay $1.00 and were asked to support the league by writing to their representatives (Engelman, 2011). The league had over 37,000 members by 1926 (Engelman, 2011). The League was able to open the first birth control clinic leagally in 1923 (Engelman, 2011). The services offered were to couples for counseling, contraceptive services, and follow-up visits if needed (Engelman, 2011). In order to show the effectiveness of the clinic and do research, the files kept on each patient was thorough (Engelman, 2011). Once Eleanor Jones took over as president, she focused on research at the Clinical Research Bureau (Engelman, 2011). Once Sanger took control of the CRB, she helped merge the CRB and

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