Statement of Purpose: The purpose of this blog to present this
topic from a historical perspective in order to evaluate current trends.
I urge you to view this topic through the lens of girls’ and women’s wellness
and suspend your current beliefs, if just a moment.
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| Institute of the Laws of England by Edward Coke |
In recent
months, the nation has become divided on issues regarding women’s rights and
women’s reproductive health. Unfortunately, this is not a new story. In
fact, history has continued to repeat itself since 1644 when Sir Edward Coke's Institutes
of the Laws of England formulated the Born Alive Rule, established
common law by stating that crimes such as homicide and assault, apply only to a
live birth, and abortion after “quickening” (first movement of the fetus) was a
misdemeanor. (Reiman, 1999, p.22). Childbirth was considered a woman’s domain
and men did not intrude with this process, until it was viewed as a legal issue
in the event of a live birth or in the event a mother died as a result of a botched
procedure.
The Born Alive Rule was the standard
in the United States until very strict anti-abortion laws were passed during
the 1800’s. The fact that the Born Alive Rule had remained the standard
for over 150 years makes one wonder what predicated such drastic changes.
In the early 1800s, women were considered
second-class citizens. Women were expected to be a mother and wife...nothing
more. After marriage, women did not have the right to own their own property,
keep their own wages, or sign a contract. Women were discouraged from pursuing
a real education or professional career.
As women began petitioning for equal
education and voting rights, men viewed this as a threat and produced wildly
inaccurate views of women, backed by science in order to assert their
power over women. This is also the same time period when Race Scientists
emerged to produce wildly inaccurate
pseudo-scientific claims to “prove” Caucasians
were superior to African Americans. In both cases, Science was used to support
religious ideologies to discriminate against marginalized populations in order
to maintain the superiority of the Caucasian patriarchy.
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| The Negro the Beast by C. Carroll |
Harvard Professor Dr. Edward Clarke stated,
“A woman’s body could only handle a limited number of developmental tasks at
one time. Girls who spent too much energy developing their minds during puberty
would end up with undeveloped or diseased reproductive systems.” He also scientifically
concluded that “If young women studied too much, they would divert
blood away from the uterus to the brain, rendering themselves irritable and
infertile.”
These statements reveal many things about the
author's views and society's belief that all women should adhere to strict
gender roles and not show displeasure in any way. It also reveals that a
woman's ultimate value is found in their reproductive abilities and the
ideology behind the laws governing women’s reproductive rights. Sadly, women
were helpless to change these ideals because they were not represented in the
political process. If women could not handle an education, then they certainly
could not handle the responsibility of voting. Therefore, all women were denied
the right to vote.
It is interesting to note the dramatic shift in
American views during the mid to late nineteenth century when the newly formed
American Medical Association, a patriarchal
society, began campaigning to criminalize abortion. Their ultimate
goal was to destroy the professions of midwives and homeopaths in order to
dominate what was once considered the women’s domain. The Catholic Church,
another patriarchal society, continued this trend by condemning the very act of
abortion. The American government, yet another patriarch society, followed suit
by criminalizing anti-contraceptive education, distribution or sale of contraceptives,
and the use of contraceptives. Ultimately, in the 1880’s almost all states in
the union had passed laws to criminalize abortions.
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The
table illustrates, arrests and convictions were very low. "This data
should not underestimate and obscure the state's serious interest in
enforcing the criminal abortion laws" (Reagan, 1997, p.117). This graph
more accurately represents the increase of public interest and the sustained
commitment to regulate reproductive rights of women.
The
1900's
Alice
Paul, suffragist and women’s rights activist, force fed for 2 months while
serving a 7 month jail term for picketing the White House.
|
 Margaret
Sanger, activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse enlisted scientists to
develop a “magic pill” which she coined “birth control.” She also established
the first birth control clinic which evolved into the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America. |
It was not until 1920 that Caucasian women
were fully enfranchised and gained their right to vote, and it was not until
the 1960’s that African-American Women were enfranchised and gained their right
to vote. Women’s suffrage fueled the escalating fervor regarding women’s
reproductive rights. A true tug-of-war between religion, patriarchal
societies, and women’s reproductive rights led to unprecedented violence in the
later parts of the 20th century.
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| Planned Parenthood |
It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Movement in
1965, when the Supreme Court decriminalized contraception because it violated a
married couple’s right to privacy, almost 100 years after its establishment. Almost
ten years later, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that women had the
right to terminate pregnancies under the 14th amendment. Women finally felt
they were making gains when the Hyde Amendment was passed only 2 years after
Roe v. Wade, which started a waterfall of restrictive legislation.
HYDE AMENDMENT
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No funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by Federal law, shall be expended for any abortion. |
The Hyde Amendment (1976) effectively restricted access to health
care options by penalizing low-income women. Since “Medicaid provides coverage
to 1 in 5 women of reproductive age (15-44), the Hyde Amendment
forces a large percentage of low-income women to pay the biggest part of their
income for safe, legal healthcare (Planned Parenthood, 2017). Soon after, states
began passing legislation that required a 24-hour waiting period for abortions,
required married women to inform their husbands before an abortion, and
mandated parental consent for minors seeking an abortion. (Title 18, Pennsylvania
General Assembly). Women began to see their newly minted reproductive rights
slowly receding as violence in the mid 80’s and 90’s dominated headlines:
bombings, shooting rampages, and an assassination.
The 21st century has mirrored the trends of
the 20th century. States have passed 1,074 abortion restrictions
since Roe v. Wade, more than a quarter of them since 2010. (Reagan,
1997). The current trend does not seem to show any
sign of slowing or reversing course. In fact, current political trends reveal
The Gag Rule established by Ronald Reagan in 1984 has been supported by every
Republican administration and opposed by every Democratic administration and
has had a massive impact on global healthcare initiatives. Under Trump’s plan,
broader restriction have been implemented by cutting $9 billion, used to fight
malaria, H.I.V., Zika, Ebola and many other global health threats (Mahoney,
2017). Each time the Gag Rule has been instated, the number of abortions
has not decreased. In fact, the number of abortion fatalities increases
dramatically.
Title X of the Public Health Service Act was
passed in 1970 by President Richard Nixon and provides funds to ensure access
for family planning and related preventive health services for low-income or
uninsured individuals,among others (Mahoney, 2017). More than 4
million individuals received services through nearly 4,000 health centers that
are partially funded by Title X grants, according to the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
The Guttmacher Institute, which monitors reproductive
health policy, estimates that the unintended pregnancy rate would be 33 percent
higher and the teen pregnancy rate would be 30 percent higher without
contraceptive care provided by Title X centers. Moreover, the institute
predicted the services provided by Title X centers have prevented "87,000
preterm or low-birth-weight births, 63,000 STIs and 2,000 cases of cervical
cancer" (Mohoney, 2017).
