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The American Dream is “a white picket fence around a private yard, 2.4 children in the home, and a nice car two.“2 While this may be the image we associate with America, it has not always been as the cultural norm it is today, nor has it been as feasible. The American Dream is a middle class ideal, and for most families, both parents must work to remain middle class. It is thus too expensive for one partner to be home with many children.4The cultural shift to having fewer children being an ideal has come with scientific breakthroughs and societal movements. As we reflect on the mark Roe v. Wade left on the United States over its nearly 50-year precedent, let us not forget how the movements that preceded and paralleled it. This includes the increase in means of family planning originated from the voluntary motherhood movement, and that has today morphed into the Planned Parenthood organization.
Family planning, as defined by Merriam-Webster is “the practice of controlling the number of children in a family and the intervals between their births, particularly by means of artificial contraception of voluntary sterilization.”3 Family planning “dates back to the earliest days of humankind. There has never been a time when women and girls didn’t want to have control over whether, when, and how many children they would have.”9 Over the course of human history, there have been a wide range of methods used to prevent pregnancy. These include using natural chemicals as spermicides, proposed by Aristotle, or abstinence advocated for by Pliny, the Roman writer of Natural History.1 The technology has now greatly advanced, and today’s means of artificial contraception include barrier methods, like condoms and diaphragms, as well as hormonal methods, like IUD implants, and “the Pill.” In 1827, the female egg was discovered, leading to rapid advances in contraceptive devices, and by 1839, condoms were invented. Voluntary sterilization was developed later, a procedure in men called a vasectomy, and in a tubal ligation in women. While there have been great technological advances in these areas, there is also societal pushback against these methods. For example, the Roman Catholic Church, which has over 50 million members in the United States, only approves abstinence for unmarried couples, and the rather ineffective “natural family planning,” also known as “periodic abstinence.”10 This method relies on observation of the “naturally occurring signs and symptoms of the fertile and infertile phases of a woman’s menstrual cycle.”
Voluntary motherhood is a movement that goes hand in hand with family planning. The term originated in the late 1800’s and was the general term for a feminist birth control movement that demanded a role in family planning.5 The movement supported women having autonomous control over their own bodies and rejecting unwanted sex. This would result in women being able to choose when, or even if, they had children. While voluntary motherhood was the beginning of feminist birth control ideas in the United States, surprisingly, the movement did not initially support legalized abortion or birth control. The voluntary motherhood movement initially feared that legalized abortion and birth control would further enable abuse and control of women. Today’s women’s rights advocates are typically pro-birth control, which is more of a non-issue in today’s political climate, and pro-abortion, political dynamite in today’s climate.
The most controversial practice in family planning is abortion. Abortion was restricted in all states by 1880.6 Before this time, despite a lack of modern medicine, abortions, while uncommon, did take place. In 1973, Roe v. Wade, decriminalized abortion, and declared it a constitutional right in all 50 States. The most prominent organization surrounding abortion today was established in 1921, the American Birth Control League the precursor to the modern Planned Parenthood, which was established in 1942.1 In its early days, Planned Parenthood focused on fighting legal restrictions on contraceptives and helped birth control to gain a wider acceptance in America. When abortion was legalized in 1973, Planned Parenthood expanded to offer abortion services as well. As abortion is quite a controversial issue, protests at Planned Parenthood locations by anti-abortion groups are quite common.8
The American Dream, built on the desire to reach and maintain middle class status has only become achievable through technological advances in birth control. These technological advances have prompted legislation that has been both promoted and fought every step of the way. The voluntary motherhood movement, which promoted a role in family planning, lead to the family planning movement and expansion of birth control, including abortion. Finally culminating in Planned Parenthood, promoting access to abortion and other family planning services. How we remember these narratives will change over time. “America’s history has always been told through appropriated narratives, as later generations align themselves with the moral victories of earlier generations.”7 The debate over abortion will lead to processual reconstruction of memories regarding Roe v. Wade and all the movements surrounding it.
Citations:
[1] “A Timeline of Contraception | American Experience | PBS.” n.d. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-timeline/.
[2] “Column: Forget the White Picket Fence, the American Dream Is in the City.” 2016. PBS NewsHour. June 29, 2016. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-forget-the-white-picket-fence-the-american-dream-is-in-the-city.
[3] “Definition of FAMILY PLANNING.” 2023. April 15, 2023. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family+planning.
[4] “Falling Fertility Rates: Why Do Wealthier People Have Fewer Children? | Nexus.” n.d. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://blog.iiasa.ac.at/2017/08/01/falling-fertility-rates-why-do-wealthier-people-have-fewer-children/.
[5] Gordon, Linda. 1973. “Voluntary Motherhood; The Beginnings of Feminist Birth Control Ideas in the United States.” Feminist Studies 1 (3/4): 5–22.
[6] “Historical Abortion Law Timeline: 1850 to Today.” n.d. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/abortion-central-history-reproductive-health-care-america/historical-abortion-law-timeline-1850-today.
[7] Magazine, Smithsonian, and Treva B. Lindsey. n.d. “What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?” Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-did-the-suffragists-really-think-about-abortion-180980124/.
[8] Reuters. 2017. “Calls for Protests for and Against Planned Parenthood.” The New York Times, February 11, 2017, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/us/planned-parenthood-protests.html.
[9] “The History of Family Planning.” 2019. November 12, 2019. https://fp2030.org/resources/history-family-planning.
[10] “What Is the Position of the Catholic Church on Natural Family Planning? – Institute of Clinical Bioethics.” n.d. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://sites.sju.edu/icb/what-is-the-position-of-the-catholic-church-on-natural-family-planning/.