Essay 1500 words

SEXUAL BODIES

I. CONTRACEPTION

A. HISTORY

- in 1870s due to Comstock laws, contraceptive information was illegal, so only legal birth control was abstinence

- first birth control pills came on market in 1960 after research and testing in Puerto Rico

- prior to 1965 Supreme Court ruling, states could prohibit use of contraceptives by married people

- in 1972 Supreme court decriminalized the use of contraceptives by single people

B. PRESENT

- birth control has allowed for

sexual intimacy without risk of pregnancy

children are more likely to be born to parents who are prepared for to raise them

spacing kids at least 18 months apart increases newborn health

increased equality between women and men

- although many religious organizations favor birth control, some groups still don’t

ex: Catholic Church says only abstinence and planning based on menstrual cycle, although most Catholics in U.S. use contraception and want the Pope’s position to change

II. ABORTION

A. STATISTICS

- each year, 3 million women in U.S. have unplanned pregnancies

- 1.3 million abortions each year in U.S.:

53% of women who have abortions are age 25 or younger;

20% are younger than 19;

33% are between 20 and 25

young unmarried white women obtain the most abortions

married women have 20% of the abortions in a given year

among women having an abortion, 43% are Protestant and 27% are Catholic

- U.S/ has one of the higher abortion rates in industrialized world – other countries have lower rates because they offer paid parental leave, health care, comprehensive sex education and birth control and emergency contraception in schools, livable minimum wage, etc – 2/3 of women in U.S. who have abortions say primary reason is that they cannot afford to have child, and 60% of abortions occur among those with annual income below $28,000 for family of three

B. LAWS

- 1973 Roe v Wade legalized abortion before the fetus reaches viability (sixth or seventh month of pregnancy)

- Hyde Amendment in 1977 passed by Congress restricted federal Medicaid funds for abortions, leaving around 6 million low-income women of reproductive age without this resource – although individual states can choose to pay with their own funds for low-income women’s abortions, as of 2006 only 17 states were doing so

- as of 2006:

29 states require a mandatory counseling session

24 states require a 24 hour waiting period btw the counseling and abortion

4 states restrict private insurance from covering abortion

21 states require an abortion to be done at a hospital instead of a clinic after a certain number of weeks of pregnancy, even though research shows abortions at clinic are safe – ex: for pregnancies past 16 weeks, Texas requires abortion be done at hospitals, but no hospitals in Texas perform abortions, only clinics do

34 states have parental consent laws that require a minor to obtain one or both parents’ consent before she can have an abortion

C. ATTITUDES

- in U.S., 55 to 65% of Americans say women should have access to legal abortion – 42% say they are pro-life and 53% say they are pro-choice