Birth Control Pros And Cons

The many methods of birth control that are available help prevent women from becoming pregnant. There are some birth control methods that are short and some that are long term. When deciding on which birth control method is best, the decision can be very personal, but not very simple to choose from. There are many things to consider, such as, its effectiveness, side effects, and health. Being educated on birth control in general will be a benefit to many. Each method has its pros and cons. Choosing a method depends on the person because each method will effect each individual differently. Birth control was presented to society and created to free our women from doing harm to their body by Margaret Sanger. Although there are many options to

Sanger was born into a large family of eleven children. Margaret spent her life creating some kind of method to help women manage the amount of children they wanted to have. Her mother died at an early age because of bearing too many children and having several miscarriages (The Pill). Many women suffered because of unwanted pregnancies. Some could not afford abortions, so they would go and get it done illegally, which was called, “five dollar back alley abortions” (The Pill). These kinds of abortions led to some complications. She believed that the only way to legalize birth control was to break the law (The Pill). After witnessing the pain that the women went through, Sanger stated in her interview with Mike Wallace, while she was working as a nurse in New York City, she was asked by many to come up with some kind of contraceptive to prevent them from getting pregnant. In 1916, she opened up the first birth control clinic illegally in the United States and was arrested eight times. (Soriano). However, she did not stop until she had completed her

It prevents a woman’s ovaries from ovulating and thinning out the lining of the uterus. When women started using this pill, there were a few who ended up being pregnant because of the incorrect use of the pill. Watkins had wrote in her book, “Of course, it could not offer 100 percent protection; pregnancies did occur in women on the pill” (8). The pill needs to be taking once on a daily basis in order for it to be effective. According to Watkins, the pill is ninety-nine percent effective and was considered the most effective contraceptive method than any other method (8). Before the pill, there were condoms, diaphragms, and devices, but they were not reliable contraceptives. The pill as well as other birth control methods has side effects, but the benefits of the pill outweighed the risks of using the pill. In 1961, fourteen percent used the pill and two years later it increase to forty-two percent to sixty-two percent (Watkins, 34). In other words, the pill became the most commonly used method chosen by women. Watkins gives many factors why many used the pill. It was convenient and easy to prescribe and the cost was affordable (35). Many women could not afford other contraceptives that were out or they were embarrassed to use