Although birth control has been around for quite some time, avoiding pregnancy wasn't always this convenient. Before the emergence of birth control, there were many other methods tried. Most of them were dangerous for the user or not very easy to use or effective. Discovering the birth control pill was a revolutionary time for women. Giving them the option to be able to control when they wanted to reproduce in a safe way was very liberating.
Planned Parenthood has had a huge impact on the St. Paul - Minneapolis area. Not only does the organization assist individuals in getting the health care they need, but it makes contraceptives easily accessible for many people. Planned Parenthood also does an excellent job on educating the community about many sex related topics, including contraceptives. The advocacy programs that Planned Parenthood provides has people speak out about making sure sexually active individuals be smart and stay safe.
The benefit of birth control has been present for women since the 60's. New research has shown a possible birth control pill for men in the future. Studies have begun to understand the reproductive hormones in the male, which has made this a possibility. It doesn't seem like the freedom for men to control their fertility as well is too far down the road.
There is a lot of information about birth control, and most women are aware of the wonderful benefits that go hand in hand with the pill, yet there are still many people within our country that do not obtain birth control for various reasons. It is important to address the reasons why women do not acquire the pill when they are trying to avoid pregnancy.
It is astonishing to see how much education has an effect on the amount of women who use contraceptives and on the number of children they have. More contraceptives are used by women who have a higher education. As the amount of education a women has increases, so does the age at which she has her first child. It is also proven that the number of children a woman has decreases as the amount of education she has increases.
Thanks for your presentation today. In the spirit of Cynthia Enloe, your talk made be curious about:
a. What would a historical account of birth control from the perspective of non-Western medicine or women (and men) who functioned outside of the "medical establishment" look like?
b. What various knowledges have been generated by those engaged in these non-Western/non-medical establishment practices? And how has an emphasis on western medicine as more advanced obscured/ignored those practices?
c. Is it possible to understand these different practices (that is western and non-western or medical establishment/non-medical establishment) simultaneously without valuing one over the other or are they fundamentally opposed to each other?
d. In terms of the impact that education has on whether or not women use birth control, what other factors influence how/when/why women do or do not use birth control?
e. How do the types of questions we ask and the types of answers we formulate change when we shift our key question from "why aren't women using birth control?" to "what factors impact their ability to make informed choices?"
During your tracking of your term, did you come across any sources that address these questions? Did any of the sources that you researched make you curious?