History of Birth Control

So I just came across this article that discusses the birth of the Pill, which is what we had talked about briefly at the meeting as wanting to find out more. Sanger was interested in women's rights and was working with the immigrant community, but she was also a eugenics enthusiast as it was a major fad at the time. The article states that pill was developed to solve issues of overpopulation rather than help "emancipate" women. I think I have a bit of difficulty with that diction since it's still a hormonal contraceptive that you need to take everyday. It also adds to the medicalization of female bodies. Here's the article I was talking about that discussed the sterilization of Puerto Rican women.

Here's Loretta Lynn singing The Pill, a song about how the pill helped liberate women from patriarchy (to an extent). woot!

IUDs

There was recently an article in Newsweek about women getting IUDs. It used to be that women who hadn't had children yet were not allowed to get them for fear of sterilization. There is also the problem that if one gets an STI, the IUD can get caught in the scar tissue, hence leading to sterilization or other health problems.

However, more research has led to IUDs being offered to more women these days. While there are two different kinds of IUDs--copper or hormonal, it can actually be a really good alternative for women who do not wish to use a hormonal form but want protection from unwanted pregnancies.

Here's an interesting article about IUD accessibility.

Target Women- Birth Control

Here's the Target Women: Birth Control video we watched at our first meeting. There's a bunch of other one that should be linked to that. Sarah Haskins is awesome!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFr9RK1L5pI