US 1960s

30 States have contraception laws

Anthony ComstockReligion: 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

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 RaisedWhat 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?