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It always surprises me when younger people, especially young women, take for granted the right to use birth control.
While the early 1970s might seem like centuries ago, many states still prohibited the sale of birth control to women who were unmarried. Women who weren’t married often needed to borrow a wedding ring or buy a fake ring in order to get birth control.
During the 1960s, when the so-called “sexual revolution” was in full bloom, it was still considered immoral in much of the country for an unmarried woman to take the pill or to use birth control at all. This is because it meant the woman was having sex before marriage.
At that time, the majority of states outlawed the advertising of birth control, let alone the sale of it. There was no sex education, and a lot of young women had no idea what birth control was or that a woman needed to use it. When a teenage girl became pregnant out of wedlock, she was often forced to live in “a home” in a different city in order to save her parents the shame and embarrassment. In many cases, her baby was taken away from her at birth and given to adoptive parents whether she wanted that or not.
With some of today’s presidential candidates being in solid opposition to women’s reproductive rights, it’s important to remember that the freedoms we take for granted are far more fragile than many people realize. I find it even more puzzling that women would vote for these candidates, or ignore the importance of this and not vote at all.
A good reference is "On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970." By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins
—Dr. Paul posts daily at www.GuideToGettingItOn.com
