Birth Control :: Contraceptives, Birth Control Essays

Birth ControlBirth control has been a field of study affecting womens and mens health, religion, bring upuality and peace of theme for many years. Let me start with the history of birth control. A commixture of birth control methods have been used throughout history and crosswise cultures. In ancient Egypt women used dried crocodile dung and honey as vaginal suppositories to forestall pregnancy. One of the earliest mentions of preventive vaginal suppositories appears in the Ebers Medical Papyrus, a medical use up written between 1550 and 1500 BC. The guide suggests that a fiber tampon moistened with an herbal mixture of acacia, dates, colocynth, and honey would preserve pregnancy. The fermentation of this mixture can result in the production of lactic acid, which today is recognized as a spermicidal (New Internationalist). Before the foundation of the juvenile birth control pill, women ate or drank various substances to prevent pregnancy or induce miscarriage. However, s uch folk remedies can be dangerous or even fatal.In the furthermost 4,000 years, weve come a long way toward safe and effective methods for contraception. Women dont have to drink ruinous teas as they did in the middle ages. They dont have to risk their health with galling douches as they did in Victorian Age. Men dont have to paint their penises with tip as they did in Egypt, heat their testicles as they did in Rome, or arch openings in the base of their penises to spill semen outside of the vagina during ejaculation as they still do in Australia (Riddle). Women and men dont have to abstain from sex for fear of having more children than they can afford or of endangering a womans health with a high-risk pregnancy. A lot less has changed in the last fifty years. In the 1950s, only one out of eight couples in the world used a safe and effective method of family planning. straightaway more two out of eight couples rely on modern methods of birth control to maintain the health and well-being of their families (Speroff).Margaret Sanger, an American nurse, pioneered the modern birth control movement in the United States. In 1912 she began publish information about womens reproductive concerns through magazine articles, pamphlets, and some(prenominal) books. In 1914 Sanger was charged with violation of the Comstock Law, federal legislation passed in 1873 prohibiting the placard of obscene material including information about birth control and contraceptive devices.