Women's Reproductive Rights

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From illegality to equality : reprodutive rights in the United States

Exactly one hundred years ago, the first birth control clinic opened in the United States. Although the history of reproductive rights started at the beginning of the XXth century, they are still nowadays a central issue of public debate.
We will explore the social history of repoductive rights in the United States since the 1910s, paying close attention to the the emergence, development, and persistence of the movement for birth control until the 1970s when the second-wave feminist movement took over the fight claiming the right to abortion.

Background
In the early 20th century, the fight for woman's rights, engaged decades earlier, intensified . Many changes regarding …show more content…
The close-down of the clinic, raided by police ten days later , generated considerable publicity and further support especially among working-class and poor women. Thus, birth control entered the political sphere, paving the way to a more formalized movement fighting for women’s reproductive rights and spreading support for birth control. In 1917, the National Birth Control League was founded as well as a new monthly journal, The Birth Control Review, which became a forum to promote birth control. In 1918, the Crane’s decision was the first step forward because it enabled physicians to give advice and prescribe birth control to married women for therapeutic purposes . The popular attitude toward birth control progressively changed contributing to the growing legitimacy of contraceptive devices. Moreover, the isolated birth control movement made a key strategic shift from its earlier radical past. Its working-class and feminist orientations disappeared including its radical critique of capitalism and patriarchy. While distancing itself from its radial connacetions, the new movement changed of Strategies and tactics in order to gain respectability and allied/turned to new allies: scientists and the medical profession to further the birth control cause and to win mainstream support. It marked the beginning of a new period for the birth control movement. The American Birth control League was established in 1921 to promote birth control and to educate the general public about contraception and the first legal birth control clinic run by medical professionals , the Clinical Research Bureau, opened in 1923. Family planning clinics operated under medical supervision were established throughout the country and this represented a major
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