Birth Control: The Role Of Contraception In Tamar

Contraception is the deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation by various drugs, techniques, or devices – also more famously known as birth control. This research paper will examine the views of both the Catholic Church and the view that opposes the Catholic Church on this practice. Each view will be examined thoroughly with the reasoning behind each unique view.

Public health researchers with the UC San Francisco group, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, conducted a longitudinal study of 956 women who sought an abortion and were turned away. Diana Foster’s study reveals what happened to the women’s economic standing, health and relationship status after being denied their right. She claims that, “When a woman is denied the abortion she wants, she is statistically more likely to wind up unemployed, on public assistance, and below the poverty line” (Newitz). This is clear because one of the major factors in a woman’s decision to abort, is because of her awareness that she will not be able to financially support her child. One of a woman’s most formidable fears is to fail to adequately raise her child and provide him with his greatest odds to succeed. Naturally, a mother’s ultimate goal is for her children to have a better life than she did. This fuels the majority of people’s ambition and determination to obtain a comfortable and promising life style, to then pass on to their offspring. Women living in poverty seek abortions because they do not want to bring a child in a life of misery and suffering. The decision to terminate a pregnancy is not just blindly decided, all aspects of the mother’s and child’s life are considered. In fact, after initially being denied the right to abort, the survey demonstrates that 45% of the women were on public assistance (Newitz). However, Foster concludes, “a year later, they were far more likely to be on public assistance — 76% of the turnaways were on the dole…67% percent of the turnaways were below the poverty line” (Newitz). Therefore, it is evident that not allowing women to legally have abortions creates more strain on the state because of these mothers' increased dependence on social assistance programs.

Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides healthcare and education to both men and women, having over 650 health centers that provide healthcare to countless communities around the world. Shockingly, 78% of those who use Planned Parenthoods services live at or below 150% of the federal poverty line, showing how important this organization is to low-income families (Topulos, Greene, Drazen). Their mission statement is “A Reason for Being”, which is shown through their efforts to provide health care, advocate public policies, create educational programs, and endorse research. There are those who do not believe Planned Parenthood should be funded by the government, though, due to the fact that they provide abortions to women in need. Studies show that the effects of not having Planned Parenthood available are disastrous, causing low-income families to lack a healthcare provider and the number of those who are infected with STD’s and STI’s to rise. The biggest concern communities have about the government defunding Planned Parenthood is the effects that it would have on low-income families who would no longer have access to something that many people take for granted: health care. Although many believe that Planned Parenthood mostly provides abortions, in reality, only 3% of the people that seek help from them receive an abortion, while 97% receive affordable and, in many cases,

Abortion continues to make a profound impact on public policies and remains one of the most controversial debate of our time. Though abortion continues to be a debate, it was not always a problematic one. Abortion has been present throughout history dating back to the ancient Egyptians, Greek and Roman. Before abortion became a crime in the 19th century, abortion was a womans choice. “Before abortion became the object of law, it was a subject of everyday life” (Roe v Wade BOOK p. 11). From early civilizations to today, abortion was and may still serve as a form of birth control. It has been observed that through abortion those of upper class avoided “unwanted childbearing and the lower classes used it to limit family size when 1 or more child

Prior to the 3000 BC, women tried various birth control methods. Some of the common methods included

Of the number of women who obtain contraception care at clinics, more than one-third of them use Planned Parenthood (Marcus). With the removal of these services, there would be a drastic increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies. Each year, Planned Parenthood prevents an estimated 516,000 unexpected pregnancies (Strickland). Not only would the number of unplanned pregnancies increase, but the awareness of sexual education would decrease, as Planned Parenthood provides sex education to 1.5 million people each year (Strickland). While it is easy to assume that women would be able to get access elsewhere, it is simply not feasible. The magnitude at which Planned Parenthood extends its services would not easily be matched. The inability to provide contraception to the women who would go unprovided would create a detrimental problem in the government that is trying to defund the

Although societies with rigorous rules such as the ancient Greeks practiced the use of birth control and the invention of modern contraceptive methods---such as condoms, diaphragms, and douches---have been around since the early 1800’s, birth control still did not prevail in the twentieth century and was highly controversial. Margaret Sanger gave people a new and radical ideology stating how birth control helped women in many more ways than their sexuality. Sanger published many literature pieces about her opinions on options and freedom for women in society. Several other women and doctors acknowledged her argument by broadcasting it during the Progressive Era. When the 1920’s came around,

Recently in Colorado, a religious man in a Planned Parenthood unit in Colorado Springs shot four people. Religious protesters often surround the Planned Parenthood’s unit in Stapleton, where the abortion procedures take place. It is clear that religion plays a big role in women’s health issue. However, if abortion is a very sensitive matter because it would be a murder for some individuals, using birth control is as despicable as using condoms – which no one considers to demand a prescription for. For those who seriously believe that life starts right at the fecundation moment, birth control should not pose an issue. And if there’s a study that proved that abortions among teenagers dropped so considerably, turning the birth control more accessible should be something desirable, at least to avoid a “greater

Originally, the major dispute over President Obama’s proposal focused on the coverage of contraception and its “pressure” on religious practices. Some statistics brought to light by the Guttamacher Institute state “that 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used birth control.” Yet, after this was justified opposers of Obamacare then tried to segue into the argument from religion to money. Based on this fact, it’s difficult to make the assumption that all Catholics are anti-contraception. While they may have their religious freedom, they like many others also want to make the decision for themselves when it would be appropriate to have children (Guttamacher Institute).

One of the many purposes of birth control is to avoid unwanted pregnancies. In this day and age the decision to take birth control should be a mere right and not a debate, but society has still not fully accepted the use of birth control even though “ninety-eight percent of women use birth control at some point in their lives” (Milligan, 2014, p. 3). Birth control has unfortunately earned a negative stigma because it allows women to have sex without getting pregnant and that is frowned upon throughout parts of society. Some members of society have even compared the use of birth control to abortion. Women who choose to take birth control should not be judged and the use of birth control amongst women should no longer be considered disgraceful. The reliable access to birth control should be made available to all women no matter their race, age, and class.

This week marks the forty-sixth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, a document which clarified the Church’s moral teaching on contraception. What is contraception? Contraception is, “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation whether as an end or as a means” (Humanae Vitae 14). There are various methods of contraception that temporarily or permanently sterilize a couple, thus making it impossible to have children. Contraception destroys the union and love between couples. In this we find that contraception violates God’s plan of procreation. Contraceptives go against the gift of fertility by treating pregnancy as a disease. The issue of contraception has drawn worldwide attention with people divided on whether it is morally permissible to use any form of contraception. Society views contraception as a development in the modern world that helps in the regulation of birth. We find that many Catholics don’t understand this issue and the Church’s teaching on contraception has been misunderstood. The Church makes it clear through Humane Vitae that any use of contraception is morally wrong, for it violates the dignity of marriage and God’s plan of procreation. It is our understanding that marriage is a sacrament of love between two people, instituted by God, for the whole purpose of continuing his plan of creation. Marriage is the foundation of

Access to birth control and other contraceptives is almost as hotly debated as abortion, when it comes to women’s healthcare and rights over their own bodies. In the article “Birth Control Should Be Considered a Human Right”, is about how denying a women birth control is essentially denying about half the population of the world a choice in what they want to do with their bodies. There are roughly 80 million women who have unplanned/unintended pregnancies and 68,000 women die from “botched back-alley abortions each year”. Logic would follow that if those women had access birth control the number of unplanned pregnancies would drop, “Research has shown that satisfying the current unmet need for contraceptives could prevent roughly 150,000 maternal deaths and 25 million induced abortions worldwide annually”.

Just because a woman acted foolishly and carelessly does not mean that an innocent third party, the child, should have to accept the punishment for their mother’s actions. Another alarming statistic is that twenty-two percent of all pregnancies in the United States end in abortion (U.S. Abortion Statistics). Many of these abortions occur from people who live below the poverty level and cannot afford proper birth control. While abortion has been decreasing among most groups of categories that are determined by characteristics such as age, race, and financial income; abortions among poor people have been on the rise. In 2008, poor women were responsible for forty-two percent of all abortions that took place in the United States. Likewise, the abortion rate of poor women escalated by eight-teen percent from 2000-2008 (Wind). This problem can be solved by providing more heath care clinics through the country for those individuals who cannot afford birth control. With more available heath care clinics, the amount of abortions that occur will be diminished significantly and wrongful killing of unborn children will come to an end.

In this paper I will argue that Plato would not agree with the use of birth control or contraceptive for the set of regulations he establishes concerning sexual relations and the family in the Republic. Plato’s disapproval for the use of birth control would muddle his goals because it would lead to interference regarding how the guardians will enforce and maintain control over the city. For example, Plato’s Socrates claims that the guardians would need to control how groups of women and which groups of men would best fit together to produce the best children. Since, Socrates doesn 't believe that sex should be random both for practical reasons and moral ones birth control would not help his goals in establishing sex control. In addition

The mainstreaming of the family planning agenda in many countries over the decades has been accompanied by increased researcher interest in the subject, with a lot of research attention being focused on the link between family planning and poverty. Empirical research studies using standard economic models have demonstrated that increased access to family planning services is associated with lower rates of poverty. This effect has been posited as occurring through a number of channels. The first channel is the family size channel. As per this channel, increased access to family planning reduces the number of children per family, which results into parents devoting more time and resources per child, and occasioning higher per-child investment that should lead to material decline in household poverty (Bailey, Malkova and McLaren, 2013). The second channel is the household income channel. Here, increased access to family planning services helps to free up more resources, which can then be invested in the improvement of the human capital of the parents. For instance, delaying parenthood can enable the soon to be parents to pursue further education, gain more work experience, or enroll for further job training, and thus raise their lifetime earnings levels (Bailey, Malkova and Norling, 2014). For instance, Bailey, Hershbein, and Miller (2012) demonstrated that women who had access to the pill were able to delay motherhood and to invest in their careers, resulting in higher wage