Today in Herstory: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Endorses Family Planning Inf
(and look at what is going on in women's health now with GYNOTICIANS instead of GYNECOLOGISTS making decisions about women's health)
Today in Herstory: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Endorses Family Planning Information Being Widely Available
April 23, 1963: A major advance today in the fight for birth control, as the prestigious American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists officially endorsed giving contraceptive information to those who want it.
The national battle over birth control has been raging for half a century now and it was said today that the long delay in the 12 year old groups endorsement was caused by the fact that so many ACOG members who are Catholic (presently about a quarter) opposed making birth control information available and the other members didnt feel strongly enough about the issue to push the resolution through until now.
Today, however, an endorsement not only passed, but apparently did so without dissent in a closed-door meeting. The groups president, Dr. George E. Judd, of Los Angeles, said the emotionalism surrounding the issue in the past seemed to have died down. So, times have clearly changed. Some ACOG members said after the vote that this resolution had been ridiculously delayed.
Planned Parenthood Medical Director Dr. Mary Calderone expressed her delight at the resolution, saying: We have reached a turning point. She referred not only to the ACOG resolution, but the National Academy of Sciences report on population published this week and the fact that the Federal Government has just reversed its previous stand and will now give birth control information on request to those participating in foreign aid programs.
For many decades, both Federal law (the 1873 Comstock Act) and the State laws which were passed soon afterward classified all birth control devices, as well as information about contraception, as obscenity with harsh criminal penalties for those who defied the prohibition. But hard work in the form of taking the case for birth control to the public in various forums, plus legislative lobbying and legal challenges to birth control bans have brought substantial progress.
. . . . .
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/04/23/today-in-herstory-american-college-of-obstetricians-and-gynecologists-endorses-family-planning-information-being-widely-available/
midnight
(26,624 posts)Today, restrictions vary among the states, but only two Massachusetts and Connecticut still have absolute bans on birth control. Connecticuts law is under challenge. Estelle Griswold and Dr. C. Lee Buxton opened a birth control clinic in New Haven in November, 1961 and were soon arrested and convicted of violating that states 1879 law. Their case is now on appeal and a favorable ruling by the Supreme Court could end the battle over birth control by fully legalizing it nationwide.
niyad
(112,438 posts)reichwing seem determined to take us back to that time, or even further back.
midnight
(26,624 posts)I just wonder how our grandmothers were so successful in getting women the right to vote.
niyad
(112,438 posts)then.
midnight
(26,624 posts)"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker did nothing to refute the idea that Republicans are waging a war on women late last week when he quietly signed three controversial bills that limit access to abortion services and sex education and repealed the state's Equal Pay Enforcement Act, on the eve of the holiday weekend.
Walker signed the bills on Thursday but did not officially announce the move until Friday, when his office released a list of 51 bills the governor signed in those two days. Democrats have already blasted Walker and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature for advancing policies they say perpetuate a nationwide trend targeting women's reproductive rights.
He might have thought none of us are watching because it's Good Friday, but all of us women are watching, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, one of four Democrats competing to run against Walker in a June 5 recall election, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week."
http://www.ibtimes.com/scott-walker-quietly-signs-anti-abortion-measures-repeals-equal-pay-act-ahead-easter-weekend-435308
niyad
(112,438 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)niyad
(112,438 posts)the general populace.