Oral birth control in the United States has a long history of controversy. For many years after it was legalized for married couples it was still considered taboo to talk about. So of course, Loretta Lynn, appropriately named Queen of Country, wrote and performed a song about it. This spunky, out spoken, record setting country goddess saw absolutely no qualm when it came to discussing, “the pill”. Although this ground-breaking song on the birth control forefront might seem revolutionary, it was nothing new for an artist like Lynn, who characteristically wrote songs about the hushed aspects of domestic life. Loretta Lynn’s song, “The Pill”, pushed social boundaries in the 1970’s by encouraging married women, especially in rural areas, to take control of their lives with the use of oral birth control. Lynn did so by informing rural women of the normalcy of oral birth control. Loretta Lynn was born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. Lynn grew up in a small poor Appalachian coal-mining community and was the second of eight children. Loretta’s career began when she started singing in church as a child. When she was 16, she married Oliver Lynn. The couple soon moved to Custer, Washington. During their first four years in Washington Lynn has four children, Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Ernest Ray and Clara Marie. Lynn was still passionate about music and began to play at local venues. By 1960, she had released her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl.” She moved to Nashville, where she continued to perform and promote her music. Moving to Nashville was arguably one of Lynn’s best decisions. That is where she met one of her best friends and role models, Patsy Cline, as well as find fame and recognition there. During her career Lynn has garnered an impressive release of more than 160 songs, 60 albums, a total sale of 45 million records, ten Number 1 albums and sixteen Number 1 singles on the country charts, and was the first women to win the the CMA’s Entertainer of The Year. Loretta Lynn’s most popular song, “The Pill”, was written about a married woman taking birth control. Today, this a common occurrence for American women. However, in 1975, there was a lot of controversy still surrounding the
Today, the availability of birth control is taken for granted. There was a time, not long passed, during which the subject was illegal (“Margaret Sanger,” 2013, p.1). That did not stop the resilient leader of the birth control movement. Margaret Sanger was a nurse and women’s activist. While working as a nurse, Sanger treated many women who had suffered from unsafe abortions or tried to self-induce abortion (p.1). Seeing this devastation and noting that it was mainly low income women suffering from these problems, she was inspired to dedicate her life to educating women on family planning—even though the discussion of which was highly illegal at the time (p.1). She was often in trouble with
The author’s use of rhetoric and rhetorical devices is viewed as her credibility and evidence that supports the themes, feminism and birth control. “In 1910, 4 percent of Americans
Public discussions of birth control were criminalized under the Comstock Act of 1873 because people believed it was immoral. Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 in spite of the Comstock Act of 1873, was a feminist and advocate of eugenics. After serving prison time, Sanger returned publicly and illegally with drive to present a strong argument that defended the moral use of birth control. Prior to her morally controversial 1921 speech, Sanger was arrested in New York for her intent to advocate public knowledge pertaining to birth control. Although the ethical nature of using birth control is still controversial in America, Margaret Sanger’s 1921 speech “A Moral Necessity for Birth Control” was undoubtedly a catalyst for American women to be empowered with the flexibility to choose when to procreate, thus allowing women the economic ability to escape oppression. As a result of such empowerment, I will argue that the speech’s sententious delivery of the morality of birth control use was causal to the increased demographic of women with professional degrees.
One of the most significant happenings that the Birth Control Movement was responsible for was the creation of the birth control pill. In 1948, Margaret Sanger, biologist Gregory Pincus and physician John Rock began to research and develop the birth control pill. It got approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960 (Kaufman). This oral contraception is a type of medication that women take daily to prevent pregnancy because these pills contain hormone that prevent a woman’s eggs from leaving the ovaries and making cervical mucus thicker which keeps the sperm from getting to the eggs (Planned Parenthood). Plannedparenthood.org stated that within five years of its approval, the birth control pill was used by one out of every married women
Relevance Statement: According to the CDC, 62% of women of reproductive age are currently using a contraceptive. This number has drastically risen over the years as a result of advanced medicine and availability to all women. This would not have been possible without the work and dedication of Margaret Sanger.
In the mid-1800s American women united to participate in social reforms movements more than ever before. This movement’s involved: struggle to abolish slavery, outlaw alcohol, and ban child labor among others (Rupp, 1987). Despite the failure of the women's movement to attain one among its primary goals, the passage of the ERA , the movement overall accomplished an excellent deal. For several women activists, management over their bodies was a central issue in the campaign. Women needed to be liberated to explore and control their gender, while not being judged by society. An oversized a part of management during this arena concerned having access to birth control, or contraception ways (Fishman, 1998). The contraception pill, associate inoculant,
In 1917, Margaret Sanger was arrested for distributing contraception pessirie to a immigrant women. Margaret Sanger, was a nurse, mother, sex educator, writer and most importantly an activist. Sanger, fought for women’s rights which one of the main one was to legalize birth control in America. During the process of fighting Sanger establish the American Birth Control League, now called Planned Parenthood. Sanger fund money to Grisworld the created of the hormonal birth control pill the dream of Sanger. Sanger, “wanted to have it all, and was birth control as the necessary condition for the resolution of their often conflicting needs.” (Chesler 25). Birth control has always been a colossal issue since it was invention in the 1960s by Griswold and has remained and extraordinarily controversial topic since. Therefore, if teenagers get their parent’s consent for birth control, teens will still manage to get their way and have sex, parent will think they are unhealthy, and last some parent would want their female teenager conserve until marriage. Meanwhile, if they do not get the parental consent, teenage will be encouraged to be more sexually active, female teenage will know they are safe on not getting pregnant, and it will encourage female be promiscuous.
Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement highlighted a variety of important issues. These issues include women’s right to make decisions privately versus the right of a community to regulate moral behavior; the ethnic demographics of the American people; the ability of women to control their own physical destinies by limiting family size; and the idea that small families were the way to keep the American dream alive. The debate over birth control spoke to personal and political issues, which poses the question: Was birth control merely a matter of individual choice, or was it about power, wealth, opportunity and similar issues? Birth control was not merely a technique to expand the realm of personal freedom; it grew out of a radical
The Birth Control Movement of 1912 in the United States had a significant impact on Women’s Reproductive Rights. Women in the 1800s would frequently die or have complications during or after childbirth. Even if the woman would have died, they would still have a great amount of children. As the years progressed into the 1900s, the amount of children being born dropped. Because of this, birth control supplements were banned, forcing women to have a child that she was not prepared for or did not want to have in the first place.
Margaret Sanger’s hard work to legalize and promote contraception was rooted in her belief that those who were impoverished should not procreate. In her book My Fight for Birth Control, Sanger claims, “I associate poverty, toil, unemployment, drunkenness, cruelty, quarreling, fighting, debts, and jails with large families” (Planned Parenthood). Sanger set out to “sterilize the unfit” and make known methods to control the population (Planned Parenthood). Many of her colleagues were racist and believed contraception should be used for the purpose of maintaining
Public discussions of birth control were criminalized under the Comstock Act of 1873 because people believed it was immoral. Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 despite the Comstock Act of 1873, was a feminist and advocate. After serving prison time, Sanger returned publicly and illegally with drive to present a strong argument that defended the moral use of birth control. Prior to her morally controversial 1921 speech, Sanger was arrested in New York for her intent to advocate public knowledge pertaining to birth control. Although the ethical nature of using birth control is still controversial in America, Margaret Sanger’s 1921 speech “A Moral Necessity for Birth Control” was undoubtedly a catalyst for
Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age
In the 1950s, birth control pills were introduced in the United States (Windsor, 2002). Over the past seven decades, the pill has changed the American women’s lives in several ways. The pills have allowed women to delay marriages, invest in their career development, and secure well-paid jobs in areas that were previously dominated by men. The pill has also improved family relationships and prevented abuse and marriage dissolutions. This paper explores the history of birth control methods in the US and how the pill became available on a large scale to women. The paper further examines how the pills has given women the freedom to advance their careers, strengthen the marriage relationships, and participate in the workforce.
Founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, in her speech at the 1925 birth control conference, The Children’s Era, explains the downfalls in American society when it comes to raising children. Through this speech, Sanger is trying to further promote her nonprofit organization and display the benefits of birth control. She appears to show compassionate characteristics towards children, more specifically the future American children, as she adopts an urgent tone to encompass her listeners into her ultimate goal, widespread, effective birth control methods.
One of the many purposes of birth control is to avoid unwanted pregnancies. In this day and age the decision to take birth control should be a mere right and not a debate, but society has still not fully accepted the use of birth control even though “ninety-eight percent of women use birth control at some point in their lives” (Milligan, 2014, p. 3). Birth control has unfortunately earned a negative stigma because it allows women to have sex without getting pregnant and that is frowned upon throughout parts of society. Some members of society have even compared the use of birth control to abortion. Women who choose to take birth control should not be judged and the use of birth control amongst women should no longer be considered disgraceful. The reliable access to birth control should be made available to all women no matter their race, age, and class.