contraception

• 
• 5/21/2023
  

  Texas Judge Revives Anthony Comstock's Crusade Against Reproductive Freedom

  by Bill Greer

  The career of Anthony Comstock shows what can happen when a highly committed moral crusader gains traction in the political system. His rehabilitation in the contemporary abortion war is cause for concern. 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  4/16/2023
  

  How the Comstock Act is Making a Comeback

  Lauren MacIvor Thompson and Mary Ziegler discuss the history of the 19th century Comstock Act and its appeal to abortion opponents as a legal tool to ban abortion nationally. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  4/17/2023
  

  Could the Comstock Act Help the Right Ban Abortion Nationwide?

  Historian Lauren MacIvor Thompson explains how the law, which hasn't been enforced in 50 years, is being considered as a tool to secure a nationwide abortion ban by a group of Republican Attorneys General. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/9/2023
  

  After Texas Ruling on Abortion Medication, Get Ready to Hear More About the Comstock Act

  by Mary Ziegler

  The ruling of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk invoked a reading of the 150 year-old anti-obscenity law to claim that the distribution of mifepristone by mail is illegal. 

• 
• 9/25/2022
  

  Does Marital Status Discrimination Hold the Key to Protecting Sexual Freedoms from SCOTUS?

  by Marc Stein

  As concern rises that the court might revoke the rights to same-sex marriage and contraception while reinstating the criminalization of gay sex, advocates for reproductive and sexual freedom need to consider how to make the equal protection argument that rights individuals enjoy in marriage can't be denied to individuals outside of them. 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  6/23/2022
  

  Mary Ziegler: Right Won't Stop at Roe

  Law professor Mary Ziegler explains how the anti-abortion movement upended the GOP establishment and helped push the courts to the right. Her new book is Dollars for Life.

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/3/2022
  

  What Will Post-Roe Campuses Be Like?

  Student life and mental health, gender equity, medical school curricula, and faculty recruitment are just some of the areas of change likely if some states are able to ban abortion. 

• 
• SOURCE: Atlas Obscura
  4/22/2022
  

  The 19th Century Woman's Secret Guides to Birth Control

  Women have always tried to share information enabling them to control their reproductive health, and others have always tried to stop them. Secrecy, coded language and misdirection are historical puzzles to untangle, say Andrea Tone, Naomi Rendina, Lauren Thompson and Donna Drucker. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/25/2022
  

  Antiabortion Movement Gunning for Contraceptive Rights, Too

  by Anya Jabour

  A century ago, sex researcher Katharine Bement Davis was silenced because she fought to redefine women's sexuality and contraceptive use as normal and fight for its decriminalization. The right today wants to undo her legacy through the courts.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  7/7/2021
  

  How An Anti-Vice Crusader Sabotaged The Early Birth Control Movement

  Author Amy Sohn discusses her new book on the life and work of anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock, who's work resulted in the restriction of contraception for a century. 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  5/9/2020
  

  How The Approval Of The Birth Control Pill 60 Years Ago Helped Change Lives

  FDA approval of oral contraception in 1960 had a transformative effect on women's lives but remains controversial today. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  6-16-15
  

  The most important Supreme Court decision of the last 50 years anybody hardly remembers

  It’s the Griswold decision fifty years ago this month. It raised women’s incomes and expanded opportunities for their children

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  10-3-14
  

  How the Pill Overcame Impossible Odds And Found a Place in Millions of Women's Purses

  by Ann Friedman

  The pill is now so common—four out of five sexually active women have used it—that it’s easy to forget that oral contraception was once the stuff of fantasy.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  9-23-14
  

  See the Bizarre History of Contraception in This Fascinating PSA

  A new PSA shows the lengths that women have gone to in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy

• 
• 7-14-14
  

  How Bad Is the Hobby Lobby Ruling?

  by Dr. Emma Long

  Some of the nuance of the Court’s opinion has been overlooked.

• 
• 7-10-14
  

  Is the Right to Contraception Services Now in Danger?

  by Heather Munro Prescott

  We shall see.

• SOURCE: National Review
  3-21-13
  

  Conrad Black: Pope Francis, Say Yes to the Pill

  Conrad Black is the author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full, and the recently published A Matter of Principle. He can be reached at cbletters@gmail.com.