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.
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
Goal: Overturn contraception restrictions.
Orders diaphragm from Japan that was
confiscated by the US government.
Ruling: Physicians could obtain diaphragms
Planned Parenthood organizer 1946
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