Overview of contraceptive use in America
Close to 60 million women in America are estimated to be at the appropriate age of childbearing. Majority of this group are sexually active but always in fear of becoming pregnant. In order to fulfill their desires, there must be use of contraceptives. Women are the majority consumers of contraceptives with close to 99% of women at reproductive age. It is estimated that 62% out of the 60 million women population between the ages of 15 and 44 (reproductive age) use contraceptives as a birth control method. It is also estimated that a third of the women population are not using contraceptives either because of pregnancy, infertility or postpartum depression. Among the women in their reproductive age, about 7% are at risk of unplanned pregnancy. The widely used contraceptive methods among women include pills, implants, vaginal ring and condoms while few women depend on male sterilization. The use of contraceptive varies according to difference in age. It is argued that women aged 30 and below use mainly pills while 30 years and above women rely on sterilization.
Use of pill as well as sterilization is considered to be the two leading contraceptive methods in US. Sterilization is specifically preferred among the black women while pills are highly preferred among white women. However, among teenagers, condoms are the most preferred methods of contraceptives. Use of contraceptive increased in America up from 56% in 1982 to 62% by the year 2008. Use of condom as a contraceptive method decreased from 20% to 16% in 1995 and 2008 respectively. Contraceptive use is mainly funded in US by Family Planning Clinics. Federal employees are also provided with the contraceptive cover. Policies have also been enacted by the states to enable insurers to provide cover on the contraceptive use as approved by Food and Drug Administration (UNFPA, 2008).
Statement of purpose
This section analyses the nature of contraceptive in America in terms of social context as well as legal context. It also examines different scholarly assertions on the nature of contraceptive use in terms of its implications on health and legal issues. This inquiry is centered on US by comparing legal issues such as laws and policies regarding contraceptive use in Connecticut and California. Their similarities and differences as well as implications/impact of implementation of laws and policies will also be analyzed in subsequent sections.
The use of contraceptives in America has presented multidimensional issues. Implications have been experienced in the public health sector. Contraception has also raised ethical concerns on questions of abortion. The religious sector has not been an exception to the debates regarding the use of contraceptive. Religious groups have held that birth control is a sin and use of contraceptive has been equated to abortion in religious doctrines. Social activists have also viewed the use of contraceptive as a gender based discrimination against women. Women activist have argued that use of contraceptive in America was first introduced by a male. Women view use of contraceptive as sexist cultures attempting to render position of women to the domestic sphere. It is also considered as attempt to maintain the status quo especially that of male hegemony (McCann, 1994).
Contraception is said to have been legal in America from 1936. However, historical records refute the legality of the contraception in US. According to McLaren (1990), these records show no legal issues on criminal prohibitions, social as well as moral disapprobation of contraception and lack of legal capability for the issuance of contraceptives. Despite the constitutional protection of contraception women still find birth control methods the worst of its kind. The complexities of contraceptives in America may as well trigger questions such as;
Is legalizing and protection of contraception a fundamental right in the US?
How does protection of contraceptives impact a female’s sexuality as well as her biological rights?
The following section on the social context will analyze the condition of contraceptive use in US in an attempt to address the above questions. It analyzes the key social ideas as well as social groups that have voiced their concern regarding the legality and scientific nature of contraception.
Social conditions, Social ideas and People Contraceptives in America
An eternal truth - An idea can change lives if done with the right mindset. Social conditions and people are only responsible for great ideas. The best example of this eternal truth – MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) has maintained an aggressive legislative agenda to toughen laws against drinking and driving. By this, it can be concluded that some of the group of people can change all visions. Ideas cannot come without people and social conditions cannot be changed without people. Therefore, it is self-evident that social ideas, social conditions and people are interrelated and are dependent on each other.
The vital role played by Social Ideas
People are created in a social manner therefore social ideas live in us. To generate great social ideas social networking is quite important. Whatever we implement, the most whatever we do should be determined in each and every context. Twitter and Facebook are the consequences of social ideas; we spend a lot of time on these social platforms rather than others. Social ideas can improve social, economic and political structures of the smaller than the smallest thing and the greatest.
People and Social Conditions
It can be explained in several ways. Social condition basically describes the living conditions of any social group like education, housing etc. It may also be defined as the state how people find themselves in a particular society. Some people found social conditions undesirable. A specified change in social condition can change the environment completely. The social conditions are quite diluted and it refers to society as a whole.
Contraceptives in America
There is quite a big discussion of contraceptives in America these days. Many safe methods are introduced to us for birth control. This short information contains all the facts about contraceptives in America. There are around 62 million American women in their childbearing years. Birth control allows them to prevent pregnancy and plan the timing of pregnancy. Lots of women don’t want to become pregnant but they become pregnant if they and their partner fail to use a contraceptive formula. Most of the American women want only two children, and to follow this aim they must use a contraceptive formula. Birth control is a social issue as if not brought under control at the right time; it may cause many difficulties like population explosion. So, contraceptive introduction also brought many changes in the environment, if someone is not able to take the responsibilities of a child then he/she has lots of time to think over it. This social condition if controlled in a right way may lead towards pleasurable situations.
In what way social ideas affect society and culture
A society is a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory. There are two basic concepts of society – culture and social structure. In society culture is defined as “the knowledge, language, customs, values and the other objects which are transferred from person to person and from one generation to the next generation in society. There are certain rules which must be followed by the people of all society then only unity can be living with them. These rules can take the form of laws or customs. There are certain punishments for an inappropriate behavior and also some rewards for nice behaviors within the society. The values of customs are totally dependant on social ideas. If even a single thing change there would be a complete change in the behavior of whole society. The status matters a lot in the society and you should maintain so that others don’t face any trouble with you.
You should be comfortable with what are you doing to give brilliant ideas in developing the societal structure. So each and every thing matters to create great social ideas. All these things must go together to get the best output. Both society and culture give a new direction to the development of social ideas. Ideas developed must be creative, also they must be in their optimized form.
Social Context: Condition, Ideas, and Groups
As mentioned earlier, contraception is a multifaceted issue that has attracted various legal as well as social concerns in the US. Questions on the conditions of its legality have been raised sometimes with gross legal complications and varying opinions from lobby groups. Contraceptive use in America has been thrown at the backlash of women’s movement. Anti birth control statutes were amended. For example, Connecticut is considered to be one of the states that battled for birth control. Comstock, who is Connecticut born, was one of the people who questioned the morality of contraceptives. His ideas were that birth control methods were systems of obscenity. He also argued that the idea of contraceptive use was a way of fostering immorality in the American society. He came up with a bill against obscenity arguing that contraceptives should be banned. This was referred to as the Comstock Act (Chesler, 1992).
Comstock Act was later challenged by Margaret Sanger who became the first woman to operate a birth control unit in US. This was considered a demeanor to New York statute that prevented the sale or prescription of contraceptives. However, the New York court after Sanger release issued a reading on use of birth control methods only for therapeutic purposes. United States Supreme Court later confirmed the constitutionality of the Comstock Act. Many people from the social groups as well as legal experts argued that contraceptives were to be prevented as contemplation on its use were unlawful. US Supreme Court has acted in different premise to protect contraception. A notable example is the court case between Tileston versus Ullman in which the court dismissed the appeal against Connecticut statute on contraceptives. The plaintiff was concerned on his professional advice on social concerns such as impact of contraceptives on childbearing. The court rejected the appeal asserting that no patient’s life was in danger as eluded by the appellant (Chesler, 1992).
Various legal dimensions were also associated to the social context of contraceptive use. Massachusetts law protected contraceptive among unmarried individuals. This law encouraged the use of contraceptives only among the married people. The arguments of the Massachusetts judicial court have always been concerned with protecting the interest of the citizens. Massachusetts laws on contraceptives prevent physical as well as undesirable consequences of conception.
American Laws and Policies on Contraceptives:
There are various laws and policies in US regarding contraception. Some of these laws have been discussed in brief in earlier sections. New York statute on contraception prevents a person from selling, advertising or giving medicine for the prevention of contraception. The statute protects physician from making advertisement on contraception or giving advice on the use of contraceptives. Basically, New York law prevents doctors from distributing contraceptives. The Connecticut statute on contraception on the other side prohibits any use of drugs or other means in preventing conception. The Connecticut statute considers use of contraceptives unconstitutional. Massachusetts law on the other side prevented the distribution of any material herein referred to any article designed to prevent conception. Massachusetts law considers such distributions as undesirable and has physical consequences. These laws are more or less similar to Californian laws. However, California laws have permitted issuance of condoms especially to the students. These laws; however, give parents ability to withdraw their children from classes that discuss birth control methods as well as prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Impacts of contraceptive policies and laws in America
The impact of policies can be understood in two facets. There are states that have protected contraceptives and firmly rooted their arguments against legalization of contraceptive use while there are states that have allowed for the use of contraceptives. All in all such policies have both negative impact as well as positive impact on the social-demographic factors of US. In terms of legal issues, contraceptives debates have led to strengthening of various legislation opposing abortion as well as reproductive rights. There have been constant battles on whether minors should be taught about sexuality in schools with regard to discussions about birth control methods (Tone, 2001).
On the other side, birth control policies and laws such as those seen in California as well as other states may lead to a fall in birth rates. This might in turn weaken the social environment. States that have actively advocated for birth control have experienced declines in birth rates as contraceptive use has highly discouraged pregnancies. Contraceptive use has also been associated with changes in the social environment. The family which was regarded as a unit of production has collapsed in America. This translated to lack of family guidance for birth control methods. Teenagers have, therefore, resorted to use of manuals for their own help about contraception. Social demographic have also changed in the number of children required by a couple. Generally, fertility rate has declined due to restrictive practices that are found in contraceptives policies and laws. Birth control policies by the governments or the state laws led to various efforts by individual to regulate the rates of their fertilities. Other impact of such policies has been witnessed in the criminalization of abortion as well as staging campaigns on the legislatives conditions on the obscenity law (Gordon, 1990). Other impacts by policies and laws on contraceptives impacted on sexual behaviors. Research shows that sexual activity increased with the permission on use of condom. This shows the extent to which sexual liberation had gone.
Implementation of Laws and Policies
American governments have made various attempts to develop policies and laws regarding contraceptives. However, implementation of such policies has met serious consequences that have demeanor their success. Over the last 20 or so years the US government has designed policies as well as laws regarding birth control/family planning methods but the practice has not been effective (Dixon-Mueller, 1993). There have been various methods put in place in US department of health to oppose birth control with different aimed at restricting access to contraceptives and services, and information regarding use of contraceptives. These efforts have not been successful. The efforts by the health department coincided with health sector reforms causing a major impact on the birth control/family planning methods. There have also been different programs between the US department of health and local health administrators making it hard to implement family planning policies. Changes that have been effected in department of health have hindered the successful implementation of birth control/contraceptive policies. This is due to change in limited privacy as well as lack of educational activities. The success of implementation has also been affected by reduced access to contraceptives provision facilities. Poverty has also been cited as a major hindrance to the implementation of these policies. However, the most conspicuous reason to unsuccessful implementation of the policies and laws has been political interference. Judicial system has failed to implement these policies due to political interest of the US government on the need to protect contraceptive.
References
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2. Dixon-Mueller, R. (1993). Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive
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4. McCann, C. R. (1994). Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916–1945. Boston, MA:
Cornell University Press.
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a. Cambridge, UK: Blackwell.
6. Tone, A. (2001). Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.
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a. New York, NY: UNFPA.
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