Birth Control And Abortion

How have race and class impacted women’s access to birth control and abortion?

Though the infamous and most utilized method of birth control today, the pill, was not popularized until the 1960s, women have been experimenting with and developing a multitude of different types of birth control as well as seeking safe, effective abortifacients and abortions for hundreds of years. History most often tells the unblemished, classic story of Margaret Sanger and the fight for women and their reproductive rights in the early-mid 20th century. Though an incredibly significant part of history, this is just a small piece of the story, for it only shares the perspective of the birth control movement from middle-class white women. This small glimpse into

Once people began to see birth control as a powerful tool to be used in the integration of racially motivated political movements, blacks used birth control to politicize the developing race consciousness and changing social status, for control over a woman’s own body meant control over their health, economic status, and social standing Those involved in the black feminist movement argued that motherhood should be a choice; these women came together to demonstrate resiliency, increasing their own access to birth

In general those who were oppressed in terms of race and class were able to see the birth control movement from a wider lenses and therefore were able to incorporate it into other movements, despite the inherent disadvantages that they faced. Nonetheless, to this day, there are still major disparities in how people of not only different ethnicities and classes, but different income levels, education levels, and socioeconomic status use birth control. There is still work to be done in order to make birth control more accessible to everyone of all races, incomes, religions, beliefs, and