Birth Control- Annie Reiney

Birth control has evolved into being a norm for almost all women. Birth control started out as an act of freedom for women, a perseverance from women being looked down upon or not be treated as equally as men did. Without powerful women in United States history, the rights to family planning would never of been possible. Birth Control was never a way to eliminate children it was a way to give women options in life and to give children a bright future as well. Birth control was an equality movement. Aletta Jacobs and Margaret Sanger both created a safe and effective way for women to have a voice.

Aletta Jacobs, was one of the first women to become a doctor. She started a campaign to try to make a pill that would spread to all women. She was the first women to open up a contraceptive clinic in Amsterdam. Aletta Jacobs wrote in her autobiography, “ For social, moral, and medical reasons, women from different social classes had often asked me for some form of contraception. I had always had to fend off these requests without providing adequate explanation or advice. Eventually I sent letters to a number of women whose need was greatest. I told them that I believed I had found a means to help them, but before I could fully recommend it, they would have to agree to regular examinations during the first months of its use. Some of these women eventually agreed to the experiment, and the results were such that, some months later, I was able to announce that I could provide a safe and effective contraceptive."( Simkin, John). She had seen what pregnancy does on a woman's body and how birth control gave women options, that they had never been accustomed to before. Aletta Jacobs became the face of birth control. After talk of a successful contraceptive, feminist Margaret Sanger teamed up with Aletta Jacobs to bring birth control to the United States, for all women, making sure that choices for women were endless. ( Simkin, John and Hudson, Claudia).

With the new ideas of birth control traveling to the United States, other feminist began spreading the good news. But from a religious aspect birth control was murder, and someone should be arrested for even the propaganda on such topics. Margaret Sanger, worked as a nurse mostly studying in sex education and women's health (writings from Margaret Sanger). Sanger began to post and write articles on women's rights to contraceptives, she was arrested for distributing information on such a new and shameful topic. (NYU edu, writings from Margaret Sanger). In 1917, Sanger began to campaign for the American Birth Control League, she began getting support from social workers and people from the eugenics movement as well. With almost twenty birth control movement and campaigns started from Sanger she began to get the word across. Birth control became a movement of women's suffrage, it became a family planning method to control the population along with human welfare. (Lehfeldt Hans).

Margaret Sanger’s influential stories helped to see that birth control was not just a woman's equality movement but a way to help the poor. In one of her stories, she talks about how she was working with a family, they started out with five children then quickly became a family of eleven kids. Two of the oldest girls a prostitute, three boys serving jail time for major crimes, the youngest of the kids working in sweatshops. One of the youngest kids, had been crippled from working in safe working conditions. Only two of the kids became anything, one sold bubble gum and the other stays at home taking care of his crippled sister. The mother and children live in fear everyday of their dead beat drunken, violent father. This is just one story that proves that women should be given choices. Children were brought into a situation that they live in fear, the mother is taken advantage of by her husband and her children are victims in a terrible situation. (Margaret Sanger’s stories- NYU- Morality and Birth Control) A simple pill provided from a clinic could of saved a family, people living in poor conditions, should take proper advancements to not be unfit providers to their children.

The people behind the pill, had a plan that took serious thought, the pill was not meant for just anyone it was for women who met the special criteria. The first birth control was called Enovid, the legal bill that was passed with the pill stated that people getting the pill before age 21, significantly reduces the amount of unfit and young parents. In the studies shown, there were more older moms, and more women were working in the workforce. The pills trial run was a success, it opened up doors for womens future.( Martha Bailey)

Both Margaret Sanger and Aletta Jacobs both gave women a future, a future to raise a family when ready. Both Margaret Sanger and Aletta Jacobs both faced allegations and hardships, they were arrested, but with help they have become the two most influential people in history, especially to women. Birth control today is still one of the most debated and controversial topics. Some people, think that it is the prevention of life, I think that birth control is a chance. A chance to improve the life for the next generations,especially poverty stricken families. With certain limitations such as age, I think birth control is positive movement if monitored.

Among other advocates for family planning, Sanger founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Along with Planned Parenthood, she was involved in over thirteen other birth control organizations.

Margaret Sangers work with birth control, first started with the inspiration from Aletta Jacobs. Aletta Jacobs started her birth control campaign in the Netherlands, but with Margaret Sanger among her side it quickly moved to the United States.

Margaret Sanger faced many allegations against society that she was inhumane. Sanger faced many hardships when trying to legalize birth control in the United States.

Margaret Sanger was the first American birth control activist. She was the first to successfully open birth control clinics and establish organizations for the new ideas of birth contraceptives.

Margaret Sanger was hated by many people for trying to altar the natural course of having children. She was arrested in 1916 for releasing information on birth control.

Works Cited

Bailey, Martha J. “More Power to the Pill: The Impact of Contraceptive Freedom on Women’s Life Cycle Labor Supply.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121.1: 289-320. Print. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25098791

Envoid- first birth control pill to be introduced. 

Research: US increases women labor force participation and sees swing in fertility... Discusses Margaret Sanger. 

Brinkley, Alan. American History. Vol. 2. N.p.: Mcgraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences, 2011. Print.

Text book didnt really help my research that much. 

Hudson, Claudia. “Women Heros” [“Women Hero: Aletta Jacobs”]. Women Heros. My Hero Project, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=Aletta_Jacobs_2006>. “Aletta Jacobs was a woman ahead of her time. Though living in the Victorian age, her views and actions on feminism, education, women’s suffrage, birth control and social welfare presented causes and ideals that would carry on into the next century.

In the words of Harriet Pass Freidenreich: ”A pioneering physician and feminist, Aletta Jacobs had a twentieth-century vision, even though she lived most of her life during the Victorian era. As the first woman to attend university and receive a medical degree in the Netherlands, who then managed to combine a career with a companionate marriage and political activism, she can serve as a role model for modern professional women, although her example was difficult for other women of her own generation to emulate. Jacobs established what is often considered the first birth control clinic in the world. She also spearheaded campaigns for the deregulation of prostitution, the improvement of working conditions for women, and the introduction of woman suffrage in Holland. She was a prominent leader in both Dutch and international suffrage organizations and in the women’s peace movement during World War I.“ 

Birth control was known as dangerous and immoral, but she opened a practice to experiment. There were speculations that birth control would lead to a world without children and a devastated economy, people spread rumors about the dangerous practice that she had started. But she made birth control start in the Netherlands and then with Margaret Sanger and Marie Stops it traveled to the U.S

Lehfeldt, Hans. “Margaret Sanger.” The Journal of Sex Research 2.3 (1966): 155-56. Print. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3811510

“The birth control movement grew out of one womans outrage at the suffering she saw among the poor. It grew into a view of family planning accepted and practiced in a majororty of American homes, a cause widely and wisely promoted throughout the world an international consensus that population control is necessary to human welfare and global peace”.

“Marie Stopes: A brief biography.” Curtin University Library. Curtin University, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://john.curtin.edu.au/womenshealth/stopes.html>.

Maria Stopes was leading advocate for birth control and rights of women. She wrote book “Married Love”, and released info on birth control, and she was lectured for being inhumane. Met with Margaret Sanger. Margaret Sanger wrote book, My fight for Birth Control. They decided to open a birth control clinic and after 9 days it was shut down by police. Offered free service for married women with birth control. In 1920, Stopes opened the world first horse drawn birth control carvan, and formed National Birth Control Council(Family Planning Association). 

“Selected Writings; Margaret Sanger.” New York University. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/documents/selected.php>.

Primary Sources:

Actual Stories of hers

Morality and Birthcontrol*****

Simkin, John. “Aletta Jacobs.” Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://spartacus-educational.com/USAWjacobsA.htm>. 

“Jacobs also became involved in providing women with birth-control. In her autobiography Jacobs wrote: ”For social, moral, and medical reasons, women from different social classes had often asked me for some form of contraception. I had always had to fend off these requests without providing adequate explanation or advice. Eventually I sent letters to a number of women whose need was greatest. I told them that I believed I had found a means to help them, but before I could fully recommend it, they would have to agree to regular examinations during the first months of its use. Some of these women eventually agreed to the experiment, and the results were such that, some months later, I was able to announce that I could provide a safe and effective contraceptive.“

One of the first women to be succesfully a doctor, she wanted women to be given a chance to use birth control. She used a few women as experiments to try out the product. She opened up a clinic in Amsterdam, before opening on in the United States. She also was involved in the Contagious Disease Act.