Zorea - Birth Control

Aharon W. Zorea

Copyright 2012 by Aharon W. Zorea

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zorea, Aharon W.

Birth control / Aharon W. Zorea.

p. cm. (Health and medical issues today)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780313362545 (hard copy : alk. paper) ISBN 9780313362552 (ebook)

1. Birth controlUnited States. 2. Birth controlGovernment policyUnited States. I. Title.

HQ766.5.U5Z67 2012

363.960973dc23 2011043157

ISBN: 9780313362545
EISBN: 9780313362552

16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5

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Artificial forms of birth control are now a common part of modern American life. As of 2010, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 99 percent of sexually experienced women aged 15 to 44 have used some form of contraceptive at least once in their lives. Without the benefit of historical context, this simple statistic might suggest that birth control is now universally accepted and free from controversy. But a little more than a half century ago, when the first oral contraceptive was introduced, there were at least three states that outlawed the public sale and distribution of birth control. Just over a century ago, every church opposed birth control, every state had some prohibition against its dissemination as a form of obscenity, and certain sectors of the federal government actively monitored violations. The fact that birth control is now so common reflects a history of dramatic moral, social, political, and economic changes over the course of the twentieth century.

Even today, the predominance of birth control does not accurately reflect the level of controversy that is still associated with it. It is true that almost all women have used some form of birth control, but there are differences among methods and practice among sexually active women, suggesting greater diversity of opinion. At least 20 percent of sexually active women choose to permanently eliminate any chance of conception by sterilizing themselves or their partners. A majority of sexually active women (about 56 percent) remain open to conception in the future but choose one or more contraceptive methods. A large minority of sexually active women (about 20 percent) choose not to use any contraceptives at all. Although statistics provide little insight into personal motivation, the distribution of these results suggests a lack of consensus among American men and women on the role of contraceptives in their lives. Despite the nearly universal experimentation, birth control remains controversial for a variety of moral, political, and economic reasons.

Historically, the practice and promotion of birth control has never been without some level of controversy. Contraceptives are not new, and references can be traced back to ancient times, with the earliest description of pessaries in Egypt dating from around 1850 BCE. Similar accounts found in ancient Roman, Indian and Chinese texts suggest that the practice was not limited to any single culture or era, but their scarcity also indicates that the dissemination of birth control information was usually limited or deliberately kept away from the mainstream of social discussion.

In more recent times, especially in the United States, birth control was regarded as immoral and unsafe. By modern standards, many methods used prior to the 1800s were unreliable and unsanitary. Such remedies included ritualistic charms, mercury-based potions, herbal mixtures, and pessaries made from any number of substances ranging from acacia gum to crocodile dung. Some of the social prohibitions against contraceptives certainly arose from twin concerns about consumer fraud and public safety. Doctors warned patients of the dangers of magical cures and their snake-oil salesmen, while the legal system prosecuted the purveyors of contraceptive manuals and devices under decency laws as an offense against the public order.

Yet even beyond the obvious risks to health and pocketbook, popular culture in the nineteenth century generally disapproved of artificial birth control as an offense against nature. The religious community viewed conception as a miracle that was only partially the result of human sexuality. The political community viewed population growth and its related increase in human labor as a key to national prosperity. For most Americans in the early 1800s, the idea of limiting family size seemed both selfish and a little unpatriotic. In this environment, birth control had very few advocates.