Birth control before 20th century The practice of birth control was common throughout the U.S. prior to 1914, when the movement to legalize contraception began. Longstanding techniques included the
rhythm method,
withdrawal,
diaphragms,
contraceptive sponges,
condoms,
prolonged breastfeeding, and
spermicides. Use of
contraceptives increased throughout the nineteenth century, contributing to a 50 percent drop in the
fertility rate in the United States between 1800 and 1900, particularly in urban regions. The only known survey conducted during the nineteenth century of American women's contraceptive habits was performed by
Clelia Mosher from 1892 to 1912. The survey was based on a small sample of upper-class women, and shows that most of the women used contraception (primarily douching, but also withdrawal, rhythm, condoms and
pessaries) and that they viewed sex as a pleasurable act that could be undertaken without the goal of procreation. wrote the first book on birth control published in the U.S. Although contraceptives were relatively common in middle-class and upper-class society, the topic was rarely discussed in public. The first book published in the United States which ventured to discuss contraception was
Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question, published by
Robert Dale Owen in 1831. The book suggested that
family planning was a laudable effort, and that sexual gratification – without the goal of reproduction – was not immoral. Owen recommended withdrawal, but he also discussed sponges and condoms. That book was followed by
Fruits of Philosophy: The Private Companion of Young Married People, written in 1832 by
Charles Knowlton, which recommended
douching. Knowlton was prosecuted in Massachusetts on
obscenity charges, and served three months in prison. Birth control practices were generally adopted earlier in Europe than in the United States. Knowlton's book was reprinted in 1877 in England by
Charles Bradlaugh and
Annie Besant, with the goal of challenging Britain's obscenity laws. They were arrested (and later acquitted) but the publicity of their trial contributed to the formation, in 1877, of the
Malthusian League – the world's first birth control advocacy group – which sought to limit population growth to avoid
Thomas Malthus' dire predictions of exponential population growth leading to worldwide poverty and famine. The first birth control clinic in the United States was opened in 1917 by
Margaret Sanger, which was against the law at the time. By 1930, similar societies had been established in nearly all European countries, and birth control began to find acceptance in most Western European countries, except Catholic Ireland, Spain, and France. As the birth control societies spread across Europe, so did birth control clinics. The first birth control clinic in the world was established in the Netherlands in 1882, run by the Netherlands' first female physician,
Aletta Jacobs. The first birth control clinic in England was established in 1921 by
Marie Stopes, in London.
Anti-contraception laws was ultimately responsible for many anti-contraception laws in the U.S. Contraception was not restricted by law in the United States throughout most of the 19th century, but in the 1870s a
social purity movement grew in strength, aimed at outlawing
vice in general, and
prostitution and obscenity in particular. Composed primarily of Protestant moral reformers and middle-class women, the
Victorian-era campaign also attacked contraception, which was viewed as an
immoral practice that promoted prostitution and
venereal disease.
Anthony Comstock, a grocery clerk and leader in the purity movement, successfully lobbied for the passage of the 1873
Comstock Act, a federal law prohibiting mailing of "any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of
abortion" as well as any form of contraceptive information. After passage of this first Comstock Act, he was appointed to the position of
postal inspector. Many states also passed similar state laws (collectively known as the
Comstock laws), sometimes extending the federal law by additionally restricting contraceptives, including information about them and their distribution. Comstock was proud of the fact that he was personally responsible for thousands of arrests and the destruction of hundreds of tons of books and pamphlets. These Comstock laws across the states also played a large role in prohibiting contraceptive use and informing to unmarried women as well as the youth. They prevented advertisements about birth control as well as disabling the general sale of them. Because of this unmarried women were not allowed to get a birth control prescription without the permission of their parents until the 1970s. The
free love proponents were the only group to actively oppose the Comstock laws in the 19th century, setting the stage for the birth control movement. The efforts of the free love movement were not successful and at the beginning of the 20th century,
federal and
state governments began to enforce the Comstock laws more rigorously.
Birth control movement From World War II to 1960 After World War II, the birth control movement had accomplished the goal of making birth control legal, and advocacy for reproductive rights began to focus on abortion, public funding, and insurance coverage. Birth control advocacy organizations around the world also began to collaborate. In 1946, Sanger helped found the International Committee on Planned Parenthood, which evolved into the
International Planned Parenthood Federation and soon became the world's largest
non-governmental international family planning organization. In 1952,
John D. Rockefeller III founded the influential
Population Council. Fear of global
overpopulation became a major issue in the 1960s, generating concerns about
pollution,
food shortages, and
quality of life, leading to well-funded birth control campaigns around the world. The 1994
International Conference on Population and Development and the 1995
Fourth World Conference on Women addressed birth control and influenced
human rights declarations which asserted women's rights to control their own bodies.
The sexual revolution and 'the pill' In the early 1950s, philanthropist
Katharine McCormick had provided funding for biologist
Gregory Pincus to develop the
birth control pill, which was approved by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1960. In 1960, Enovid (
noretynodrel) was the first birth control pill to be approved by the FDA in the United States. New forms of
intrauterine devices were introduced in the 1960s, increasing popularity of long acting reversible contraceptives. In 1965, the
Supreme Court ruled in
Griswold v. Connecticut that the
Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to use contraceptives without government restriction. Also in 1965, 26 states prohibited birth control for unmarried women. In 1967 Boston University students petitioned
Bill Baird to challenge Massachusetts's stringent "Crimes Against Chastity, Decency, Morality and Good Order" law. On April 6, 1967, he gave a speech to 1,500 students and others at Boston University on abortion and birth control. He gave a female student one condom and a package of contraceptive foam. He spent three months in Boston's Charles Street Jail. During his challenge to the Massachusetts law, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts stated that "there is nothing to be gained by court action of this kind. The only way to remove the limitations remaining in the law is through the legislative process." Despite this opposition, Baird fought for five years until
Eisenstadt v. Baird. This was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on March 22, 1972, that established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples.
Eisenstadt v. Baird, a landmark right to privacy decision, became the foundation for such cases as
Roe v. Wade and the 2003 gay rights victory
Lawrence v. Texas. In 1970, Congress removed references to contraception from federal anti-obscenity laws; and in 1973, the
Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion during the first
trimester of pregnancy. Also in 1970,
Title X of the
Public Health Service Act was enacted as part of the
War on Poverty, to make family planning and preventive health services available to low-income and the uninsured. Without publicly funded family planning services, according to the
Guttmacher Institute, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher; the number of
unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double. According to the
United States Department of Health and Human Services, publicly funded family planning saves nearly $4 in
Medicaid expenses for every $1 spent on services. This highlights how Title X has contributed to long-term public health goals by reducing rates of unintended pregnancy and supporting reproductive autonomy for millions of people. ) emergency contraception on a pharmacy shelf in
Oregon In 1982, European drug manufacturers developed
mifepristone, which was initially utilized as a contraceptive, but is now generally prescribed with a
prostoglandin to induce abortion in pregnancies up to the fourth month of gestation. To avoid consumer boycotts organized by
anti-abortion organizations, the manufacturer donated the U.S. manufacturing rights to
Danco Laboratories, a company formed by
pro-abortion rights advocates, with the sole purpose of distributing mifepristone in the U.S, and thus immune to the effects of boycotts. In 1997, the FDA approved a prescription
emergency contraception pill (known as the morning-after pill), which became available
over the counter in 2006. In 2010,
ulipristal acetate, an emergency contraceptive which is more effective after a longer delay was approved for use up to five days after unprotected
sexual intercourse. Fifty to sixty percent of abortion patients became pregnant in circumstances in which emergency contraceptives could have been used. These emergency contraceptives, including
Plan B and
EllaOne, became another
reproductive rights controversy. Opponents of emergency contraception consider it a form of abortion, because it may interfere with the ability of a fertilized
embryo to
implant in the
uterus; while proponents contend that it is not abortion, because the absence of implantation means that
pregnancy never commenced.
21st Century In 2000, the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that companies that provided insurance for prescription drugs to their employees but excluded birth control were violating the
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
President Obama signed the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on 23 March 2010. As of 1 August 2011, female contraception was added to a list of preventive services covered by the ACA that would be provided without patient co-payment. The
federal mandate applied to all new health insurance plans in all states from 1 August 2012. Grandfathered plans did not have to comply unless they changed substantially. To be grandfathered, a group plan must have existed or an individual plan must have been sold before President Obama signed the law; otherwise they were required to comply with the new law. The
Guttmacher Institute noted that even before the federal mandate was implemented, twenty-eight states had their own mandates that required health insurance to cover the prescription contraceptives, but the federal mandate innovated by forbidding insurance companies from charging part of the cost to the patient. The ACA coverage of female contraception has been noted to be beneficial for women. From 2012 to 2016, the percentage of women who did not need to pay for their contraceptives within their
private insurance increased from 15% to 67%. This created an increase in accessibility to contraceptives for women, as poor financial status was listed as one of the reasons that women who wanted to use birth control and prevent unplanned pregnancies could not use them. The average yearly price for fuels contraceptive
co-pays also reduced from $600 a year to $250 a year. In addition, a nationally representative survey in 2015 indicated that over 70% of women agreed that not having to make out of pocket payments helped with their ability to use birth control and also aided their consistency of use.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, , is a
landmark decision by the
United States Supreme Court allowing
closely held for-profit
corporations to be exempt from a law its owners religiously object to if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law's interest. It is the first time that the court has recognized a for-profit corporation's claim of religious belief, but it is limited to
closely held corporations. The decision is an interpretation of the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and does not address whether such corporations are protected by the
free-exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. For such companies, the Court's majority directly struck down the
contraceptive mandate under the ACA by a 5–4 vote. The court said that the mandate was not the least restrictive way to ensure access to contraceptive care, noting that a less restrictive alternative was being provided for religious non-profits, until the Court issued an injunction 3 days later, effectively ending said alternative, replacing it with a government-sponsored alternative for any female employees of closely held corporations that do not wish to provide
birth control.
Zubik v. Burwell was a case before the
United States Supreme Court on whether
religious institutions other than churches should be exempt from the
contraceptive mandate. Churches were already exempt. On May 16, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a
per curiam ruling in
Zubik v. Burwell that vacated the decisions of the Circuit Courts of Appeals and remanded the case "to the respective United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fifth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits" for reconsideration in light of the "positions asserted by the parties in their supplemental briefs". Because the Petitioners agreed that "their religious exercise is not infringed where they 'need to do nothing more than contract for a plan that does not include coverage for some or all forms of contraception'", the Court held that the parties should be given an opportunity to clarify and refine how this approach would work in practice and to "resolve any outstanding issues". The Supreme Court expressed "no view on the merits of the cases." In a concurring opinion, Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ginsburg noted that in earlier cases "some lower courts have ignored those instructions" and cautioned lower courts not to read any signals in the Supreme Court's actions in this case. In 2017, the Trump administration issued a ruling letting insurers and employers refuse to provide birth control if doing so went against their religious beliefs or moral convictions. However, later that same year federal judge
Wendy Beetlestone issued an injunction temporarily stopping the enforcement of the Trump administration ruling. In 2022,
Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case ''
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization''. That ruling resulted in an unforeseen future of birth control and planned parenthood in America. In 2023,
Opill became the first over the counter birth control pill approved by the
FDA. ==Current practices==