America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation Read Free Page B

decades of activism on behalf of women’s rights. They knew that women could not achieve full equality unless they had control over their reproductive lives. Although the two would never benefit from the pill them-

    selves, it was Sanger and McCormick’s tireless efforts that made the pill possible.

    The work of Sanger and McCormick built upon centuries of women’s efforts to control their fertility. In the United States, by the nineteenth century contraceptive practices were widespread and reasonably effective, resulting in a dramatic decline in the birthrate. In 1800, American women had an aver- age of eight children. By 1900 that number had declined by half. Nineteenth-century women controlled their fertility through several different means: late marriage or no marriage, sexual re- straint, coitus interruptus, barrier methods such as the condom, pessaries (suppositories inserted in the vagina to kill sperm or block its entry into the uterus), and abortion. Abortion was common and generally accepted until “quickening,” the point at which a woman can start to feel the movement of the fetus, which usually occurs about four months into a pregnancy. 2
    Among the experiments in fertility control were those adopted by utopian and religious communities that sought to alter sex, gender, and family arrangements as well as reproduc- tive practices. The Shakers did away with sex altogether; Mor- mons established polygyny; and the Oneida Perfectionists turned to “group marriage” in which the community’s leader gave certain couples, selected according to eugenic principles, permission to procreate, and everyone else was allowed to have sex with whomever they wished as long as they practiced “male continence”—intercourse without ejaculation. Women’s rights leaders also called for new approaches to sex, marriage, and reproduction. They promoted “voluntary motherhood,” which

    would give women the right to decide if and when to have children. Some radical activists went further. “Free love” advo- cates like Victoria Woodhull and anarchists like Emma Gold- man sought to liberate women from the shackles of marriage altogether. 3
    It was not until the late nineteenth century that policies limiting access to birth control and abortion began to develop, promoted largely by the emerging medical profession, whose mostly male practitioners sought to take control over the process of pregnancy and birth from midwives and lay healers. At that time, zealous campaigners against all forms of behav- ior they considered to be immoral took aim at contraception, calling it a “vice.” The most aggressive was Anthony Com- stock, a United States Postal Inspector and longtime vice cru- sader who began a campaign against all forms of birth control. In 1873 a federal law named for Comstock equated birth con- trol with pornography and prohibited all contraceptive infor- mation and devices from being sent via the U.S. mail. The Comstock Law restricted access, but it did not prevent women from obtaining birth control. Women shared information with each other by word of mouth and found ways to transport de- vices without using the mail system. They also mounted chal- lenges to the law that eroded its prohibitions. Advertisements for contraceptives used euphemisms such as “effective for fe- male disorders,” or contained warnings that “special care should be taken not to use the remedy after certain exposure has taken place, as its use would almost certainly prevent con- ception.” In spite of such efforts to get around the Comstock Law, it remained in effect for more than half a century. 4

    As the women’s rights movement gained momentum in the early twentieth century, activists demanded not only the vote but also equality in marriage, access to divorce, and the right to engage in or refuse sex and reproduction. The birth control movement emerged as part of this wide-ranging feminist agenda. Both Sanger and McCormick began