birth control

Margaret Sanger's Ghost and the Antiabortion Movement

by Melinda Cooper

The anti-abortion right's invocation of eugenics in the Dobbs case and in their public rhetoric might seem cynical. But it could be effective, unless the history of Sanger's relationship to eugenics and reproductive freedom is better understood. 

The Misuse of History in 2021 Documentary "The Business of Birth Control"

by Donna J. Drucker

The documentary combines an endorsement of conspiratorial suspicion of pharmaceutical contraception and scientifically questionable fertility management under the guise of "empowerment" with a dose of financial conflict of interest thrown in. 

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. 

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. 

The Dangerous Rise of the IUD as Poverty Cure and the History Behind It

by Christine Dehlendorf and Kelsey Holt

The notion that limiting women’s reproduction can cure societal ills has a long, shameful history.

How birth-control leaders found allies in American religious groups

by Linda Gordon

"I suspect that I am not the only secular person who often assumed, however unconsciously, that politically active religious groups in America today are mainly illiberal."

Did We Give the Pill Too Much Power?

by Elizabeth Weingarten

More than fifty years after the pill first came to market, its promise of access and equality remains unfulfilled for millions of other women.

The Great Bluff That Led To A 'Magical' Pill And A Sexual Revolution

In the '50s, selling contraception was still officially illegal in many states.

The Shocking Ways We Talked About Birth Control in 1932

by Richard Kreitner

A depressingly relevant—if fascinating—exercise it is, to revisit a special issue about birth control The Nation published on January 27, 1932.

Property v. Liberty: The Supreme Court’s Radical Break with Its Historical Treatment of Corporations

by Ruth H. Bloch and Naomi R. Lamoreaux

The expansive language is at odds with the way the Court has treated corporations historically.

SAS resistance hero and French ‘father of the pill’ dies

Lucien Neuwirth was a Gaullist politician who legalized the birth control pill in France in 1967... and fought in the SAS during World War II.