Birth Control

This article is a commentary on Prior's (2016) article “Adolescents’ Use of Combined Hormonal Contraceptives for Menstrual Cycle–Related Problem Treatment and Contraception: Evidence of Potential Lifelong Negative Reproductive and Bone Effects.” In this article I comment on emotional side effects of the pill, environmental damage as a result of the widespread use of synthetic hormones, and current public discourse about whether or not health insurance (especially when provided by employers) should cover contraceptives. Reproductive justice requires both knowledge about the effects of various forms of contraceptives and access to the contraceptives of choice.

The Roman Catholic Church, through the Magisterium teaches the faithful the right way to Christian living. Controversial among these teachings was Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae(On the Regulation of Birth) which indicates that the use of contraceptives is incompatible with the Christian message. This study situated the practices and perspectives of contraception in the context of Humanae Vitae.It then engaged students of the Catholic University College of Ghana on their practices and perspectives regarding the subject matter.The acceptance of the teachings of Humanae Vitae continues to be a critical test casefor the Catholic and Christians not only in Europe and the Americas but also in Ghana.

The North Kensington Women’s Welfare Centre (NKWWC) is an oft mentioned and referenced Birth Control Clinic located in inner West London from 1924, which was integral to the development of the National Birth Control and later, the Family Planning Association’s momentum and popularity in the mid-twentieth century. The site was key to the push to legitimise contraception through medicine and science, from the 1920s through to the hormonal birth control revolution; using a combination of active, female centric, medical based contraceptive and gynecological services, and, the employment of a scientific researcher to assist in standardising, and legitimising the various methods of birth control recommended and provided by Clinic.
This talk will discuss the standardisation activities that were pioneered and commandeered by the NKWWC Medical Committee from its formation sometime in the early 1930s, to the 1950s. Focusing on Margery Spring Rice and Dr Helena Wright, the two women who organised and managed the facility, and jointly refined the procedures for providing personalised and medically appropriate treatment to all attendees regardless of class, education or finances. The strict medical focus of the clinic was founded early when it was agreed that all patients must be provided a gynecological assessment prior to offering contraceptives; in addition, each patient would be seen by three female staff members at every appointment – a lay worker to collect non-medical data and compile ‘case cards’, a physician, conducting a detailed medical history and prescribing appropriate birth control to accommodate individual needs and preferences, and finally, a nurse to ensure the patient was able to insert and remove devices proficiently.
Concurrently, Cecil B. Voge, contraceptive researcher into spermicidal efficiency and standards for the National Committee for Maternal Health and the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States of America will be discussed. Whilst searching for a British facility to trial his newly developed ‘perfect contraceptive’, Voge became well acquainted with the NKWWC, and was invited to join the medical committee and act as the Clinic’s scientific researcher, a role he undertook with gusto. In this capacity he would ensure effectiveness and safety of contraceptives used at the clinic, and establish product standards the Medical Committee could demand of affiliated manufacturers.

An increasing number of bioethicists are raising concerns that young childless women requesting sterilisation as means of birth control are facing unfair obstacles. It is argued that these obstacles are inconsistent, paternalistic, that they reflect pronatalist bias and that men seem to face fewer obstacles. It is commonly recommended that physicians should change their approach to this type of patient. In contrast, I argue that physicians’ reluctance to eagerly follow an unusual request is understandable and that whatever obstacles result from this reluctance serve as a useful filter for women who are not seriously committed to their expressed requests for sterilisation. As women already disproportionally bear the birth control burden, less resistance that men might be getting in terms of voluntary sterilisation works to women’s advantage, providing a much needed balance. Societal attitudes towards women and motherhood should not be confused with individual physicians’ reasonable reluctance to jump at a serious elective procedure at fairly mild expression of interest.

En Perú, entre los años 1996 y 2000, el Gobierno del expresidente Alberto Fujimori implementó una política de planificación familiar que tuvo como resultado la esterilización de un número aproximado de 300.000 personas. Desde entonces, la presencia de este tema en la
esfera pública ha llevado a varios grupos de la sociedad peruana a elaborar diversas opiniones.
Aquellas que se han asentado como discursos dominantes hablan de esterilizaciones forzadas y de víctimas, mientras los funcionarios fujimoristas niegan la existencia de prácticas violatorias. Además, existen otras narrativas minoritarias que se desconocen por su
escasa relevancia para el debate político, cuyas perspectivas complementan las reflexiones sobre este tema. Este artículo examina el enfoque de los discursos públicos dominantes actuales, así como el de esas otras narrativas menos conocidas, y propone una mirada crítica hacia los planteamientos victimocéntricos.

In Peru, between 1996 and 2000, the government of former President Alberto Fujimori implemented a family planning policy that resulted in the sterilization of approximately 300,000 people. Since then, the presence of this issue in the public sphere has led to the development of different opinions among several groups of the Peruvian society. The narratives that have been established as dominant discourses speak about forced sterilizations and victims, while Fujimori’s government officials deny the existence of illegal violating practices. In addition, there are other minority narratives that are being ignored by their little relevance to the political debate, whose perspectives complement the reflections on this subject.
This article examines the approach of both the current dominant public discourses and those lesser-known narratives; providing a critical look at the victim-centric approaches.

Just over 20% of white women in America will never bear children, the highest percentage in modern history.  Only half of this group-10% of women without children- are considered infertile.  Many women in the fertile but childless group are voluntarily so:  the self-proclaimed childfree.

Yet despite the growing acceptability in remaining a childfree adult, doctors are resistant to sterilizing women without children. Access to sterilization is usually repeatedly denied, often with tactics of humiliation, hoop jumping, or second-guessing the legitimacy of the patient’s desire for sterilization, despite the legal status of voluntary sterilization for any competent person over the age of 21- regardless of parity.     

This paper will examine the many reasons why a woman who does not have children would want to continue in her childfree lifestyle, evaluate the accessibility of sterilization for women who are childfree by examining the reported reasons for denial of sterilization- both from the woman’s and the physicians’ perspective, and assess the legal status of voluntary sterilization for nonparous women. The paper will conclude that sterilization for childfree women is an ethical, legal option and that willing doctors should follow recommended guidelines for counseling women who desire sterilization, and urge hesitant doctors to reconsider their oppositions to voluntary sterilization for childfree women and provide the contraception of preference to women.

Принятое в международной практике определение репродуктивного здоровья (РЗ) было сформулировано на Международной конференции по народонаселению и развитию (МКНР), состоявшейся в Каире в 1994 г. В Программе действий МКНР, одобренной стра-нами-участницами конференции, включая Российскую Федерацию, РЗ определяется как «сос тояние полного физического, умственного и социального благополучия, а не просто отсутст вие болезней или недугов во всех вопросах, касающихся репродуктивной системы и ее функций и процессов. Поэтому репродуктивное здоровье подразумевает, что у людей есть возможность иметь доставляющую удовлетворение и безопасную половую жизнь и что у них есть возможность воспроизводить себя и что они вольны принимать решение о том, делать ли это, когда делать и как часто» 1. Такая трактовка понятия предполагает, что охрана РЗ включает в себя предоставление лечения при заболеваниях репродуктивной Статья написана на основе исследования, выполненного в рамках Программы фундаментальных исследований НИУ ВШЭ.

The purpose of the research is to demonstrate how the practice of abortion in India involves state intervention in women’s personal lives. I demonstrate how significant contradictions arise in state practice towards women’s access to abortion. I discuss the implications of these contradictions for women. Moreover the sensitive issue of female feticide, which is the product of gender inequality, has been highlighted to show how this practice is culturally embedded and are generated indirectly by some of the state policies.
This research shows how abortions in India are often a breach of reproductive rights of women, and merely serve as a tool to address the concern about population explosion. Moreover the state has imposed the 1994 Pre Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act to prohibit sex selective abortions from above, without bringing changes from below, which is making the law stringent implications ineffective.

During the course of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), free and open discussions gradually took hold among the assembled bishops once the curial grip on the Council was challenged. Within this aggiornamento[1] that was endorsed by John XXIII, the bishops discovered how creative collaboration with each other and with the Holy Spirit served fruitfully to create sixteen documents overwhelmingly approved by the assembled bishops. Given the diversity of viewpoints and the diversity of cultures among the two thousand participants, this consensus building was an extraordinary mark of the charismatic gifts of the movers and shakers at the Council. As Paul VI took over the direction of the Council after the untimely death of John XXIII, he at first endorsed the processes of collegiality that had operated during the initial two years. With the passage of time, however, Paul VI began to use his papal office on multiple levels by way of limiting the competency of the bishops and by way of pushing forward points of view that he and the curia favored. After the Council, this trend accelerated and can best be seen by analyzing the content and reception of three encyclicals, Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1/1/67), Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (6/24/67), and Humanae Vitae (7/25/68). The purpose of this essay is to explore the content and the reception of these three encyclical letters. In so doing, we shall come to understand how the authoritarian intransigence of Paul VI respecting indulgences, priestly celibacy, and birth control functioned.

In recent years, public health officials and scholars have voiced their concerns about comparatively low condom use in China, citing high rates of abortion and the growing HIV/AIDS crisis. By examining condom use through the lenses of gender and the history of medicine, this article traces heterosexual condom consumption in China from the early twentieth century to the present and situates contemporary attitudes toward condoms within long-term contraceptive patterns. Rather than simply taking for granted the role that men play in family planning decisions, this research takes men and masculinity as a central focus. An eye to the past reveals numerous historical obstacles to con-dom use, as well as an enduring aversion to condoms grounded in fears of reduced male sexual pleasure, and the gendered assumption that birth control is the sole responsibility of women. Analyzing evolving perceptions of condoms sheds light on constructions of sexuality, gender relations, and the roles of the state, society, and the individual in contraceptive decision-making in China.

This article explores the ecclesial consequences of Humanae Vitae in relation to four seminal contributions of Vatican II: (1) a renewed appreciation for the sensus fidelium; (2) the theological recontextualization of doctrine; (3) episcopal collegiality and ecclesial subsidiarity; (4) the revitalization of the church's pastoral mission. The article argues first, that Humanae Vitae, directly or indirectly, impeded the full reception and implementation of these four contributions; and second, that the pontificate of Pope Francis has helped rehabilitate precisely those conciliar contributions that were most affected by the controversies associated with Humanae Vitae.

This study used the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to explain stability and change in China's national birth control policy from 1980 to 2015. We found that policy remained stable, despite internal and external changes to the relevant subsystem, from 1980 to 2013. The stability was explained by the dominant advocacy coalition's mobilization of considerable resources to defend its policy core beliefs. Policy changes in 2013 and 2015 were caused by a combination of external and internal perturbations, in addition to policy-oriented learning and advocacy by two expert-led minority advocacy coalitions. The case showed that the openness and plurality of China's policy processes had increased over time but were still limited in comparison with those in Western democracies. The case analysis confirmed two policy change hypotheses and suggested a mechanism for policy change: a hierarchically superior jurisdiction is more likely to impose a major policy change when it learns that the change is an adaptation to internal and external perturbations and that adopting the change will serve the jurisdiction's political interests.

This policy brief explores the concept of women’s rights in regard to the impact of the ACA’s contraception policy. The purposes of this policy brief are to provide a more detailed understanding of the scope of contraception, the prevalence of birth control use, states’ policies regarding contraception, and finally, the legal and political controversies of contraceptives in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Biggar (2015) argues that “religion” deserves a place in secular medicine. Against this view, I argue that religion (as most people would understand the term) should not play a role in shaping secular health policy, and I provide some illustrations of the dangers of the contrary. However, I also suggest that—upon closer inspection—Biggar seems to be using the term “religion” to refer to obliquely to what most people would call “moral philosophy.” On this less controversial interpretation, Biggar’s proposal is inoffensive—but unoriginal.

If only sex could be risk-free. No potential children or child-support payments to worry about. No relationship hassles. No health risks. Just plain gratification.

Enter the sexbot, a robot built for the sexual pleasure of men and women. Robotics teams are working feverishly day and night to perfect this device, with a new sexual revolution around the corner.

With sexbots, modern technology will give mankind something that has been dreamed of for generations — a better way to masterbate.

It would also solve many social problems, as we explain.

Complex analysis of current situation of family planning, birth control and abortion trends in Samoa. As a small country situated in the Oceania with around 140 000 inhabitants that gained the independence in 1997 is still struggling with social issues. According to newest data as one of the most religious Christian counties consider family as important part of social life. Although big families are part of the cultural structure of the country it is essential to discuss the lack of family planning and birth control knowledge especially among young part of the population. Government social programs that tends to help young people in the subject of starting family are insufficient and often poorly exercised.

This study examined the effectiveness of contraceptive measures as means of child spacing methods among the civil servants of reproductive age in Ibadan. The research design used was a descriptive research design. A total number of 110 senior cadre civil servants and 40 junior cadre civil servants making a total of 150 civil servants were selected using accidental sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire 'effectiveness of contraceptive measures for child spacing methods among civil servants tagged 'CMCSCS' was used. A validated questionnaire by experts with a reliability level of 0.78 was used. Simple percentages and inferential statistic of t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the senior cadre civil servants had the knowledge of child spacing from friends, parents and colleagues while the junior cadre identified friends and parents. Very many of the senior cadre used safe periods and withdrawal system among other contraceptives. The results also showed that the major reason why junior cadre space their children was to assist in limiting the size of the family due to their income, while the senior cadre identified many reasons. Further finding showed that there was a significant difference in the type of contraceptive measures used by the senior cadre and junior cadre civil servants. It is recommended that the civil servants should be educated on the need to adopt the effective contraceptive measures.

There are three stages at which procreative outcomes can be prevented or altered: (1) prior to conception (2) during pregnancy and (3) after birth. Daniel Engster (Soc Theory Pract 36(2):233–262, 2010) has ably argued that plans to prevent or alter procreative outcomes at stages (2) and (3)—through abortion and adoption—introduce financial, physical, and emotional hardships to which women are disproportionately vulnerable. In this paper, I argue that plans to prevent or alter undesirable procreative outcomes at stage (1)—through contraception use—similarly disadvantage women. I suggest that accounts proposing moral responsibilities to delay or permanently avoid procreation are insufficiently attentive to the methods through which undesirable procreative outcomes might be prevented and how such methods unfairly burden women. In conclusion, I propose several ways that men and women might more equitably share contraceptive responsibility.

Levels of fertility among Indochinese refugees in the United States are explored in the context of a highly compressed demographic transition implicit in the move from high-fertility Southeast Asian societies to a low-fertility resettlement region. A theoretical model is developed to explain the effect on refugee fertility of social background characteristics, migration history and patterns of adaptation to a different economic and cultural environment, controlling for marital history and length of residence in the U.S. Multiple regression techniques are used to test the model, which was found to account for nearly half of the variation in refugee fertility levels in the United States. Fertility is much higher for all Indochinese ethnic groups (Vietnamese, Chinese-Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Hmong) than it is for American women; the number of children in refugee families is in turn a major determinant of welfare dependency. Adjustments for rates of natural increase indicate a total 1985 Indochinese population of over one million, making it one of the largest Asian-origin populations in the United States. This remarkable phenomenon has occurred in less than a decade. Implications of these findings for public policy are discussed, focusing on family planning, maternal and child health needs, and the attainment of refugee economic self-sufficiency.

The increasing awareness of inherent therapeutic and prophylactic benefits of some higher fungi and their products has been the recent trend for improving a healthy vigour. Mycomeat is a mushroom derived 'meat-like' product produced using solid state fermentation technique. Previous research in this group revealed mycomeat as a potentially useful neutraceutical. This study seeks to explore the potential of mycomeat as a therapeutic agent against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Three concentrations (83.3, 166.6 and 250 mg/kg body weight) of powdered mycomeat were prepared and administered to P. aeruginosa infected wistar rats. Morphological appearance and behavior of the rats were used as the assessment method for adverse reactions. After a period of 26 days, the rats were sacrificed with the liver, spleen and testes aseptically excised for histopathological analysis, the sperm count and sperm motility assay was carried out. Histopathological analysis revealed the testis of therapeutic group administered with 83.3 mg/kg as having a normal seminiferous tubule, while other organs were adversely affected. The group administered with 166 mg/kg of mycomeat has a normal hepatocyte, normal seminiferous tubule and splenic cells. Results from the therapeutic group were consistently better than the prophylactic group. The untreated group showed anomaly in the three organs inspected. The sperm count but not motility was significantly higher in the treated group than that observed in the positive and negative control group. This study was able to establish that mycomeat could be used to preserve body organs, at a dose of 166 mg/kg body weight. It can also be used as a birth control neutracetical for males.

When Betty Friedan was writing The Feminine Mystique, she had in mind the plight of women like Esther Kahn Taylor. Described in a 1965 Atlanta Constitution article as “an attractive woman with steel gray hair and a flashing smile,” Taylor had yearned to go to college yet married at eighteen to take up homemaking.  While raising her son, she channeled her intellectual gifts into music and Jewish philanthropy. At fifty-five, however, Taylor “was at a crossroads in her life” and was not one to fill the void playing mah-jongg.  In 1960, she traveled to New York to visit an old friend, some-one Taylor called an “ardent feminist.”  Their lunchtime conversation transformed Taylor’s life and improved the well-being of southern women for generations to come.

Cortisol, an adrenocortical glucocorticoid representing a physiological stress response (Lovell et al., 2011), is frequently instigated by the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993), a psychosocial stress inducing procedure, which has proven to be a reliable cortisol inciting protocol (Campbell & Ehlert, 2012). Collection and analysis of salivary cortisol costs >$30 in supplies and >5 work hours/participant. Non-responding participants (identified by <15.5% cortisol increase from baseline; Miller et al., 2013) are not identified until after funds and labor have been spent to collect and analyze the data. Consequently, this data is obsolete and unacceptable for the purposes of the study. For over five years the International Neuroeconomics Institute (INI), at San Jose State University (SJSU) has been analyzing salivary cortisol activity in response to psychosocial stress, instigated by the TSST, and have been faced with 20% of their participants being classified as cortisol non-responders. Hormonal birth control has been demonstrated to be correlated with attenuated cortisol response (Kirschbaum et al., 1995; Kirschaum et al., 1999). However, it had not been determined whether it is related to the proportion of psychosocial stress induced cortisol responders. This study compared the TSST induced salivary cortisol response of 16 females who use hormonal birth control (Mage = 18.9, SD = 1.41) to 18 who do not (Mage = 18.8, SD = 1.14), revealing that females who use hormonal birth control exhibit a lower percentage of responders (56%), compared to non-birth control users (84%), and are more likely to be classified as cortisol non-responders (X2(1, 65) = 5.11, p = .02). Due to this finding, we advocate the exclusion of females who use hormonal birth control in studies that utilize psychosocial stress inducing factors, specifically the TSST.. Doing so will reduce the number of cortisol non-responders and, therefore, retain research funds.

Virtually all Evangelicals recognize the health benefits of limiting pregnancy and therefore endorse some form of artificial contraception. Moreover, some Evangelicals accept abortifacents and abortion. Indeed, Evangelical colleges and universities in Massachusetts—one of the first states to mandate health insurance coverage for all citizens—have provided employees and students their choice of contraception without objection for the last decade. Based on this precedence, when the United States Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented nationwide, it was surprising to see some Evangelical corporations seeking religious exemptions from covering essential health benefits, including certain forms of contraception. My presentation will argue that Evangelicals did not need to bring lawsuits against the ACA, as contraception is viewed as a theologically acceptable part of women’s reproductive health.

First, I will survey the litigious landscape of Evangelical lawsuits against the contraceptive mandate in the ACA. Then, I provide a brief Evangelical theology of contraception and abortion, inclusive of both progressive and conservative stances. Finally, I will appeal to the internal coherence of Evangelical bioethical theology. Due to the willingness of the vast majority of Evangelicals to accept contraception—and abortion when the life of the mother is in danger—I will make the case that Hobby Lobby, Grace College, Biola University, and other Evangelical institutions could have accepted the Affordable Care Act as written. Should further exemptions be sought under ‘repeal and replace’, Evangelicals must considered the arguments presented above.

Objective: To study the demographic profile of vasectomy clients and the psychosocial factors motivating them to be sterilized. Method and sample: One hundred fifty clients attending Reproductive Health Services Center (RHSC) Vasectomy Unit Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore were interviewed using a specifically constructed interview form. The form was developed on the basis of items generated through Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) with vasectomy clients. The investigators themselves conducted the interviews at Department of Psychiatry, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore. Results: Mean age of the sample was 36.13 years. Out of the total sample 62 % were illiterate. Majority of clients were employed temporarily as laborers (i.e. 52.7%) and unskilled workers (i.e.15%). Eighty nine percent of the clients were earning less than Rs. 4000/- per month. Financial reasons were the main motivating factor to go for vasectomy. About 63 % of clients reported that they had never tried any other contrac...

Nowhere on earth do men participate in contraception in larger numbers than do women.  As highly effective forms of contraception for women have become widely available throughout the world, and as women became the crucial target of planned parenthood campaigns in the last several decades, decisions about birth control have increasing occurred in a female contraceptive culture.  Men have been intentionally and inadvertently marginalized from responsibility for preventing pregnancy, including by the transnational pharmaceutical industry, national family planning agencies, religious institutions, and multilateral aid agencies and foundations.  Through a cultural history of male contraception and ethnographic research on vasectomies in Oaxaca, Mexico, I explore men’s experiences in contemporary female contraceptive cultures.  The low rate of male participation in contraception in Oaxaca is shaped by global structures and ideologies articulated in the modernist premise of dichotomous ma...

Direct to Consumer Advertising (DTCA) has flooded media channels since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted pharmaceutical companies the ability to advertise medications to patients in the 1980’s. This has altered how patients receive information about prescription drugs. Instead of medications being vetted and suggested by physicians, patients are requesting medications after interactions with pharmaceutical companies through advertisements. The transference of medications as need-based goods prescribed based upon the evaluation and recommendation of experts, to preference-based goods which patients can research and request from their physicians, is vital in understanding how patients perceive the risks and benefits associated with these medications. This thesis explores the role of DTCA in patient belief change and subsequent intention to take a medication, with particular focus on messages of risk about birth control pills. The framework with which the study analyzes belief and intention change is Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior. A survey-based experiment was performed to assess women’s beliefs and intentions after being exposed to an advertisement with a message of risk, the same advertisement with the message of risk removed, or no message.  Future research may explore further the relationships between the types of risk messages and their influence on patient beliefs and intentions.