Contraception (Birth Control) and Family Planning PubHealthInfo

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PubHealth.info® (a subsidiary of PakMed) presents scientific information mainly based on abstracts of articles published on a variety of public health issues/topics, particularly encompassing population planning, disease prevention, maternal and child health, and communicable and non-communicable diseases (like HIV AIDS, malaria, etc) that are affecting a significant portion of population in developing and developed countries. Here you can find abstracts of articles published on a variety of public health topics under category "Contraception (Birth Control) and Family Planning". Contraception (birth control) is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of a woman becoming pregnant or giving birth. Therefore contraception is the utilization of various and sundry surgical procedures, devices, practices, agents, or drugs with the intention of preventing conception or impregnation (pregnancy). Methods and intentions typically termed birth control may be considered a pivotal ingredient to family planning. Birth control is a controversial political and ethical issue in many cultures and religions, and although it is generally less controversial than abortion specifically.

YEAR: 1996

CATEGORY: Contraception (Birth Control) and Family Planning

TITLE

The rhetoric of reproduction and the reconfiguration of womanhood in the

French birth control movement, 1890-1920.

AUTHORS

Accampo EA

SOURCE

Journal of Family History. 1996 Jul;21(3):351-71.

ABSTRACT

The birth control movement that began in Western societies during the latter part of the 19th century faced opposition

that held that reproduction was natural; that women's sexuality must be controlled; and that family life would be

destabilized, society would decay, and nations degenerate if women could control reproduction. In the US and

England, the feminist underpinning of the birth control movement was replaced by a gender-neutral system of

medical control. In France, however, neo-Malthusian discourse advanced feminist goals by recasting women as

individuals instead of dependent family members. This is evident in the work of the founder of the neo-Malthusian

movement, Paul Robin (1837-1912), who taught that female sexual emancipation and control over reproduction was

necessary for female social and political emancipation. Robin founded the League of Human Regeneration, which

sponsored lectures on population education and methods of fertility control. Robin's efforts were met with hostility by

early feminists, who sought political rights but ignored issues of sexuality. Feminist and birth control rhetoric were

successfully merged by Robin's collaborator, Nelly Roussel (1878-1922), whose own marital childbirth experiences

had nearly killed her. She attacked Christianity for linking female morality to pregnancy within marriage and argued

that birth control was no more unnatural than vaccination. Fear of female sexuality was the reason women had long

been excluded from civil rights and public life (thus, the Napoleonic Code was written). A third influential person was

Manuel Devaldes (1875-1956), who believed that overpopulation caused war and who also championed female

sexual emancipation as the means to individualism. While the ideas of these three were being circulated,

pronatalist forces succeeded in banning birth control in 1920. This law was largely ignored by the late 1950s and

repealed in 1967. The illegality of the birth control movement may have sheltered it from control of the medical

profession and protected its individualistic and emancipatory nature. (PubHealth.info Document ID: CONT2T 2072-

06)

PubHealth.info NOTE: The author(s) of this article titled, "The rhetoric of reproduction and the reconfiguration of

womanhood in the French birth control movement, 1890-1920.", is(are) Accampo EA. The source of this article is

"Journal of Family History. 1996 Jul;21(3):351-71.". This article was published in 1996 in English language(s).

(PubHealth.info® Document ID: CONT2T 2072-06. All rights reserved with PubHealth.info) PIN: 7072

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