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Birth Control And Abortion

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How have race and class impacted women’s access to birth control and abortion? Though the infamous and most utilized method of birth control today, the pill, was not popularized until the 1960s, women have been experimenting with and developing a multitude of different types of birth control as well as seeking safe, effective abortifacients and abortions for hundreds of years. History most often tells the unblemished, classic story of Margaret Sanger and the fight for women and their reproductive rights in the early-mid 20th century. Though an incredibly significant part of history, this is just a small piece of the story, for it only shares the perspective of the birth control movement from middle-class white women. This small glimpse into …show more content…

Once people began to see birth control as a powerful tool to be used in the integration of racially motivated political movements, blacks used birth control to politicize the developing race consciousness and changing social status, for control over a woman’s own body meant control over their health, economic status, and social standing Those involved in the black feminist movement argued that motherhood should be a choice; these women came together to demonstrate resiliency, increasing their own access to birth …show more content…

In general those who were oppressed in terms of race and class were able to see the birth control movement from a wider lenses and therefore were able to incorporate it into other movements, despite the inherent disadvantages that they faced. Nonetheless, to this day, there are still major disparities in how people of not only different ethnicities and classes, but different income levels, education levels, and socioeconomic status use birth control. There is still work to be done in order to make birth control more accessible to everyone of all races, incomes, religions, beliefs, and

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In America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation, Elaine May Tyler examined the history of birth control in the United States. May traced the pill's conception and evolution the United States through to the twenty-first century. The book consisted of an introduction, seven chapters, and a conclusion. May approached the topic in the context of influence of suffragist and reformer Margaret Sanger's advocacy originating in the late Progressive Era and Cold War American ideology, through to the emerging movements of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement, including acknowledging political, religious, racial, socio-economic, and gender bias factors.

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Elaine Tyler May delivers a concise historical retrospective and critical analysis of the development, evolution, and impact of the birth control pill from the 1950s to present day. In her book, America and the Pill, examines the relationship of the pill to the feminist movement, scientific advances, cultural implications, domestic and international politics, and the sexual revolution. May argues cogently that the mythical assumptions and expectations of the birth control pill were too high, in which the pill would be a solution to global poverty, serve as a magical elixir for marriages to the extent it would decline the divorce rate, end out-of-wedlock pregnancies, control population growth, or the pill would generate sexual pandemonium and ruin families. May claims the real impact of the pill—it’s as a tool of empowerment for women, in which it allows them to control their own fertility and lives. May effectively transitioned between subjects, the chapters of America and the Pill are organized thematically, in

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Taylor Hurst Kaiser AP Lang 11 November 2015 Analysis of Margaret Sanger’s Speech on Birth Control Margaret Sanger, an American birth control activist, made an announcement titled “The Children’s Era,’ at the first national birth-control conference in March of 1925. In this speech, Sanger attempts to influence her ideas and beliefs on the importance of birth control and contraceptives to the health of society’s women. She also vividly explains how controlled childbearing would apply to children who would eventually be born.

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In her pilgrimage to fight for women’s rights, activist Margaret Sanger created a speech on a severely controversial topic not only during her time period, but during our present time period as well. While many firmly disagreed with her and still do, she did bring to light a major disparity between sexes and social classes. By vocalizing her qualms with the rights of women, mainly in the middle and lower classes, to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not. By voicing her opinions in an extremely misogynistic era she made herself a totem in women’s history. Women do have a right to decide for themselves if they wish to have children or not.

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Trying to prevent neglected children and back-alley abortions, Margaret Sanger gave the moving speech, “The Children’s Era,” in 1925 to spread information on the benefits and need for birth control and women's rights. Margaret Sanger--activist, educator, writer, and nurse--opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. During most of the 1900’s, birth control and abortions were illegal in the United States, causing women to give birth unwillingly to a child they must be fully responsible for. This caused illness and possible death for women attempting self-induced abortion. Sanger uses literary devices such as repetition and analogies

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Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger, a feminist social reformer, argued that “women cannot be on equal footing with men until they have complete control over their reproductive functions”. Her argument improved our everyday life by providing more information on contraceptives, giving women the power to control their bodies, and changing the role of women and men. Margaret Sanger was determined and dedicated to provide women with information about contraceptives which eventually improved the lives of many women. During the Progressive Era, women had gained a lot more interest in becoming independent by working and improving their education.

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The issue of maternal mortality rates has and continues to disproportionately affect Black women at an alarming rate. In the NPR article, Michelle Jokisch Polo examines Black birth workers, including doulas and midwives, who deliver black babies and prioritize Black mothers, noting how the social context exacerbates this health disparity. In class, we read and discussed the work and impact of Anna Julia Cooper, a revolutionary figure and early black feminist theorist. Cooper’s position as a Black woman and renowned educator shaped her ideas and applying these ideas to Polo’s article offers a unique perspective.

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Specifically, white women often viewed sterilization as one more option for voluntary fertility regulation. She specifies that even white women in poverty did not experience reproductive abuses at the same rate as women of color. Politically active black women pushed for the being able to combine their opposition to sterilization abuse with solid support for safe abortion. Moreover, they were concerned with the amount of women of color dying each year due to illegal back-street abortions. Nelson states that the number of black women having abortions increased after the Supreme Court ruling.

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Birth control is a controversial topic and I never understood why. There are many American women who use birth control, Ninety-nine percent of all sexually experienced women have used it at some point in their lives. That’s a lot of women yet it’s not easily accessible. A 2010 survey found that more than a third of female voters have struggled to afford prescription birth control.

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Although people with rigorous rules such as the ancient Greeks practiced the use of birth control and the invention of modern contraceptive methods---such as condoms, diaphragms, and douches---have been around since the early 1800’s, birth control still did not prevail in the twentieth century and was highly controversial. Margaret Sanger gave people a new and radical ideology stating how birth control helped women in many more ways than their sexuality. Sanger published many literature pieces about her opinions on options and freedom for women in society. Several other women and doctors acknowledged her argument by broadcasting it during the Progressive Era. When the 1920’s came around, women started to break free from their conservative

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Planned Parenthood gave women the belief that they had control and a right over their own bodies and it was their choice to do as they please with it, which was groundbreaking ideal of its time. In an age that women where a property of either their fathers or of their husbands, who established complete control over these women, Planned Parenthood was an organization that went against these common practices. Margaret Sanger, creator of Planned Parenthood, wanted to change the most common practice of “‘breeding’ too many children” (Shaw 38) out of women even if they did not want them. Sanger, being such a progressive, feminist, had a series of ideal that dealt with the empowerment and rights of women in a way never seen before. So her desire to create a team to offer women, who she saw as trapped within the patriarchy, was understandable.

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When being revised, OBOS sends the article to 15-20 health experts to be read and edited. Obos is considered the most thorough and well-researched women 's health informative. This article provides information about what happened before and after abortion was legalized in the U.S. Women during the late 1900’s found ways around an illegal abortion such as underground clinics or self harm. In 1973, Roe V. Wade’s principles were adopted by the Supreme Court and made abortion legal in the U.S. The state was granted access to control abortion only to protect the health of women.

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Kenley Koval Catherine Coates English 102 23 January 2023 Topic Discussion and Knowledge Inventory Women’s healthcare was forever changed with the founding of Planned Parenthood in 1916. The organization provided women with affordable treatments and information, which would have otherwise cost them hundreds or thousands of dollars. I first learned about the Planned Parenthood organization during my freshman year of high school and became interested in the impact they had on women’s healthcare. Planned Parenthood has become controversial over time, as many believe they only perform abortions.

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In 1960, the first birth control pill was put on the market. This was the first time a woman’s reproductive health was in her own control. Ever since the 1900’s women have been fighting for the right to their own reproductive rights (“The Fight for Reproductive Rights”). With the upcoming presidential election the right to obtain birth control and other contraceptives for women could be jeopardized, and taken out of the control of the woman. Thus, the history of birth control, the statistics of how it affects today’s society, why women should have the ability to obtain it easily, and how if outlawed it would not only hurt women, but also the economy are all important topics in the women’s rights movement and very relevant in modern day society.

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