US 1960s
30 States have contraception laws
166-End Discussion Points
1. Law prohibits dissemination of birth control
literature.
2. Anthony Comstock resented women who
limited the size of their families.
3. 105 people arrested for birth control offenses
4. Madame Restell’s suicide
5. Comstock Laws
6. The idea of women wanting to indulge in
intercourse while avoiding pregnancy was
strange. Women are too pure to enjoy sex.
Brief History of Abortion in America
1. Quickening-Time when a woman first feels
the stirring of the fetus.
1800-1820
1800-1820 The Golden Age for the
Fight Against Abortion
8 kids in average family
Main motivation for
abortion was illegitimacy
Mostly for married
women known to have a
history of severe pain
during past pregnancies
Madame Restell, Comstock, Sanger
to name a few
NY Times reports in major citiesWas abortion an urban
phenomenon?
Kids viewed as a burden as
abortion or inquiries increase
Quickening definition Changed: A
separate entity is alive prior to the
stirring of the fetus
Comparison and Reasons
Not Getting Abortions
Getting Abortions
Immigrants
Catholics
Lower Class (but they wanted abortions)
Older generation not into partying
Rural 1:5
People viewed with perceived status
(religious leaders, politicians doctors)
Americans
Protestants
Upper Class
Young wanting to party
Urban 1:2
State Laws and Interpretation During
the 1900s
1/3 of states distinguish between quickened and
un-quickened
By the end of 1800s states
Protection of maternal health
Madame Restell or Ann Lohman 18121878
$20 for poor women
$100 for her increasingly wealthy clientele
Delivered babies
Placed infants for adoption
Conducted sex education classes.
Lohman climbed into
her marble bathtub
on the April morning
her trial was to start,
and slit her own
throat. She was 66.
Comstock entrapped Lohman by posing as a
husband seeking abortion services for a lady.
When she provided him with some tablets, he
returned and arrested her — accompanied by
two reporters. She faced years in jail.
Anthony Comstock
Religion: Christianity
Targets prostitution
and pornography
by tipping off
police
Anti-obscenity
crusade
Final Target=Contraceptives
Contraceptives
promote lust
and lewd
behavior. Be
pure!
1872 Anti-Obscenity Bill
Federal offense to disseminate birth control
through the mail and/or across state lines
Ida Craddock 1857-1902
From The Wedding Night
Also, to the bride, I would say :
Bear in mind that it is part of
your wifely duty to perform
pelvic movements during the
embrace, riding your husband's
organ gently, and, at times,
passionately, with various
movements, up and down,
sideways, and with a semirotary movement, resembling
the movement of the thread of
a screw upon a screw.
Sexual counselor for married couples and developer of
sex manuals
A writer on the topic of human sexuality included,
Heavenly Bridegrooms, Psychic Wedlock, Spiritual Joys,
Letter To A Prospective Bride, The Wedding Night and
Right Marital Living
Anthony Comstock declares books too obscene and
arrests Ida
Committed suicide slashing her wrists and inhaling
natural gas from the oven in her apartment, on October
16, 1902, the day before reporting to Federal prison for
a five year sentence.
Emma Goldman
Russian immigrant
Late 1800 anarchist
Coins term “birth control”
Arrested for violating Comstock Law and spends
two weeks in a work house
Margaret Sanger
American Birth Control League 1921
“We hold that children should be (1) Conceived in
love; (2) Born of the mother's conscious desire;
(3) And only begotten under conditions which
render possible the heritage of health. Therefore
we hold that every woman must possess the
power and freedom to prevent conception except
when these conditions can be satisfied.”
More about Sanger
Writes Morality of Birth Control
Travels to other countries to obtain items banned in
the USA
Goal: Overturn contraception restrictions. Orders
diaphragm from Japan that was confiscated by
the US government.
Ruling: Physicians could obtain diaphragms
Planned Parenthood organizer 1946-To have a
simple, cheap, harmless contraceptive for the
World’s poor
What Else did She Do
Cervical Cap in Europe she
Wants available in the US
But cannot due to Comstock
Laws.
Loophole-Make the item in the US in two
separate parts to avoid breaking laws.
What about this?
Grafenberg Ring 1928
Just Insert a foreign device
into your uterus to cause
an inflammatory response,
which creates a
hostile environment for
sperm. The silver wire
used to construct later
versions of Gräfenberg's
ring was contaminated
with copper, which
increases
this spermicidal effect.
1973 Roe v. Wade
Questions Raised
What are the limits of a woman’s right to make her own reproductive
decisions?
Should the unborn be afforded legal rights? What rights does the father have?
In 1976 the Supreme Court held that a state could not require a married
woman to get her husband’s consent before having an abortion. Is the
husband’s claim of a role in an abortion decision a reinstatement of the
old law of coverture (the idea that a woman had no legal existence
separate from her husband)?
What rights does the community have to set general policy?
What are the appropriate limits of government intervention?
The state may not require a woman to conceive a child: can the state require
a woman to a bear a child?
Will any of these rights changes as improvements are made in the technology
for the discovery of birth defects and genetic abnormalities, for the
implantation of the embryos, and for caring for premature infants at
earlier ages?
Planned Parenthood
• If you are under 18, your state may require one or both of your parents to
give permission for your abortion or be told of your decision prior to the
abortion. In most states with these requirements:
• You can ask a judge to excuse you from getting permission or telling your
parent or guardian. (This is called a "judicial bypass.")
• A legal guardian can give permission or be notified in place of a parent.
• If you meet legal rules showing that you are independent of the care and
control of your parents or a guardian, you do not need to get their
permission or notify them.
• In some states, you can be excused from involving a parent without going
to a judge if you are the victim of abuse or neglect and you or your doctor
report this to the appropriate authorities.
California
No parental involvement requirement.
New Jersey
No parental involvement requirement
Melissa Drexler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJbD0wTpI4