Lecture 20 Flashcards
define contraceptive
Is a device/drug which prevents conception
define abortifacient
is a device/drug which produces an induced abortion - the deliberate death and expulsion of the product of conception (anywhere from a fertilised egg, foetus, embryo to viable unborn child)
define infanticide
is the deliberate killing of a newly-born child
how to reproduce
- Penis into vagina – with or without male orgasm
- Any live sperm can reach a viable egg if the woman is ovulating
- Fertilisation can take place within minutes -> up to five days later
- Sperm can live up to five days in the uterus and fallopian tubes
what are the physical reasons why we dont want contraception
Women: 9 months, discomfort, painful birth, need to provide for child
afterwards
what are the cultural reasons why we dont want contraception
Women: shame, embarrassment, child is not the putative father’s,
public humiliation, financial inconvenience, evidence of infidelity, possible death sentence in some cultures
Men: financial obligation to raise child; child is not putative father’s, evidence of infidelity
what were forms of contraception before the pill
Ancient world: - Pessaries: vaginal suppositories - inserted plugs of gum or fibre - Breast-feeding - Coitus interruptus/withdrawal - Douching - Abstinence Fallback: - Use of abortifacients and infanticide
what was the ancient form of condoms
- First used as early as 15th century?
- Used primarily to prevent transmission of STDs such as syphilis
- Made from linen, animal intestines or bladder, thin leather
- First rubber condom produced mid-19th century
- Latex used 1930s onwards
what were ancient methods of conducting an abortifacients
- Herbal preparations which would induce uterine cramping and expel a pregnancy
- Traditional herbs included rue, pennyroyal, ergot, nutmeg
- Use of alcohol to kill foetus
- Hot baths, jumping, falls
- Induced abortions using sharp objects
what were ancient methods of conducting an infanticide
- Ancient Sparta and Rome = exposure of newborn illegitimate children, children with disabilities, unwanted female children
- Decision made by the child’s father or putative father
- Infant child sacrifice practised for religious
reasons in many ancient cultures: pre-Roman
Italian, Syrian and Middle East, Babylon, Carthage - All these practices specifically prohibited by Judaism, Christianity and Islam
what happened in the 19th century contraceptive indusrty
- Growth of industrialisation with new chemicals such as rubber
- Similar growth in popular press and advertising
- Cervical caps, vaginal sponges, primitive intra-uterine devices (IUDs), diaphragms, douching
- Use of elaborate language in advertising to conceal effects:
‘menstrual regulation’, ‘hygiene’
what was females views towards abortion in the 19th-19th century
- Early feminist thinkers opposed contraception and abortion as ‘male solutions’
- Argued that they damaged women, destroyed children, but
liberated men from financial and moral responsibility - Envisioned a radical future where any woman could welcome any child in safety and comfort
what women supported contraception
Marie Stopes - 1921: first mothers clinic opened in london - did not support abortion Margaret Sanger: - mother died after 11 children - published birth control review and founded american birth control league Katherine McCormick: - financed early research into the pill
what was the eugenics movement
- William Chapple
- spoke of the need to sterilise ‘epileptics, idiots, the physical deformed, the insane, and the criminal,’ in whom ‘the prudence and self-restraint necessary to the limitation of families is either partially or entirely absent.’
who inventedthe calander based methods
- Dr Theodore van der Velde discovered women ovulate once per cycle
- Ogino and Knaus pinpointed it occurs 14-days before next menstrual period
- smulders, knaus, ogino developed calander based contraception
