Social Issues in America

An Encyclopedia

James Ciment

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317459705
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Business

Truly comprehensive in scope - and arranged in A-Z format for quick access - this eight-volume set is a one-source reference for anyone researching the historical and contemporary details of more than 170 major issues confronting American society. Entries cover the full range of hotly contested social issues - including economic, scientific, environmental, criminal, legal, security, health, and media topics. Each entry discusses the historical origins of the problem or debate; past means used to deal with the issue; the current controversy surrounding the issue from all perspectives; and the near-term and future implications for society. In addition, each entry includes a chronology, a bibliography, and a directory of Internet resources for further research as well as primary documents and statistical tables highlighting the debates.

Abortion and Reproductive Issues

Reproductive issues and technologies have changed the American family. Women and couples now have a range of choices that allow them to delay or avoid procreation, end unwanted pregnancies, or achieve a much-desired pregnancy in otherwise hopeless situations. Both the technologies involved and the very concept of reproductive rights are relatively recent concepts, and so before discussing them it is necessary to define them.

Planned Parenthood defines “reproductive freedom” as “the fundamental right of every individual to decide freely and responsibly when and whether to have a child.” This includes the right to privacy, the right to education and the information needed to make an empowered decision, and the right to nondiscriminatory access to healthcare services.

Contraceptive Technologies

Contraceptives, or methods and devices to prevent pregnancy or conception, have been used in one form or another since the time of the ancient Egyptians, who used crocodile dung as a spermicide. Ancient practices were not limited to humans, as stones were inserted into the uterus of female camels to prevent them from conceiving during long desert treks—an antecedent of modern intrauterine devices (IUDs) used by women throughout the world. Other past practices include drinking lead or mercury in China, wearing amulets in medieval England, and drinking herbal potions in a variety of cultures.

Cave paintings from more than 10,000 years ago depict men wearing sheaths on their penises, though it is unknown whether they were wearing them for ceremonial purposes or as an early form of the condom. The origin of the word “condom” is much debated, but historians do know that they were used for contraceptive purposes by the seventeenth century. Early condoms were made of animal intestines or fabric. The rubber condom came into being by the mid-nineteenth century, and remained the most commonly prescribed form of birth control through the mid-twentieth century.

Spermicides, like condoms, have changed over the centuries. Once made of honey, dung, vinegar, or oils, modern spermicides are available in a range of forms, from creams to suppositories. A spermicide is frequently used in combination with a condom or vaginal sponge.

Diaphragms or cervical caps, which prevent conception by blocking the entry of sperm through the cervix into the uterus, have also been in use for many centuries. Asian women used half of a lemon, and women on Easter Island used seaweed to form a protective cover. Rubber diaphragms, which were developed in the nineteenth century, overtook the condom in twentieth-century America as the most popular form of birth control until the arrival of the birth-control pill.

Although many early cultures practiced oral contraception, in the form of herbal concoctions, by the Middle Ages fear of being labeled a witch all but ended it among women in the Western world. Interest in oral contraceptives was revived in the mid-twentieth century, as family research in the 1940s and 1950s sought more convenient methods of birth control. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America focused its efforts on finding a better method of birth control, and soon Dr. John Rock, a Catholic gynecologist, was conducting trials for his new pill. In 1960 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved use of the birth-control pill, which contained large doses of hormones, by prescription only. The pill sparked a sexual revolution, freeing millions of women to separate sexual intercourse from reproduction. Birth-control pills today use much lower levels of hormones than early forms, offering continued effectiveness and greater safety.

By the early 1970s, some doctors were prescribing the pill in large doses as a form of emergency postcoital contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancy. In 1998 the FDA approved the first emergency

Chronology

1670s	Anton van Leeuwenhoek first views spermatozoa under a microscope and postulates the theory that the sperm penetrates the egg for fertilization.
1790	Scottish anatomist Dr. John Hunter performs the first successful artificial insemination of a woman, using her husband’s sperm.
1821	Connecticut becomes the first state to outlaw abortion.
1857	Dr. Horatio Storer heads an American Medical Association (AMA) committee looking into induced abortion. Largely based on his recommendations, abortion is outlawed in much of the United States.
1868	Leading feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton denounces abortion as a form of infanticide.
1869	The Catholic Church, under Pope Pius IX, declares abortion is murder.
1873	The Comstock Law is passed, outlawing obscene materials including books, pictures, and all items related to birth control or abortion.
1878	Famed abortionist Mme. Restell is arrested in New York and commits suicide shortly before facing trial.
1884	Dr. William Pancoast of Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia, uses semen donated by a medical student to inseminate a Quaker woman without her knowledge. The woman bears a son.
1910	The Eugenics Record Office is founded.
1916	Margaret Sanger opens the first birth-control clinic in the United States. She is jailed for 30 days for “maintaining a public nuisance.”
1921	November 10. Margaret Sanger establishes the American Birth Control League, later known as the Planned Parenthood Federation.
1927	The U.S. Supreme Court upholds compulsory sterilization of state mental hospital inmates in Buck v. Bell.
1938	The first successful cryopreservation of human sperm is reported.
1939	The American Birth Control League merges with the Birth Control Clinic Research Bureau to become the Birth Control Federation of America.
1942	The Birth Control Federation of America becomes the Planned Parenthood Federation.
	The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Skinner v. State of Oklahoma that the state law providing for involuntary sterilization violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
1953	The first human pregnancy with frozen sperm is reported.
1960	The birth-control pill is made available to American women.
1965	The Association for the Study of Abortion is formed.
	In Griswold v. Connecticut the Supreme Court invalidates a statute outlawing the use of contraceptives, arguing that it violates the privacy of marriage.
1967	The AMA reverses its earlier stance, issuing a statement favorable to abortion.
1970	Hawaii becomes the first state to repeal a criminal abortion law. Alaska and New York repeal their laws in the same year.
1971	Pro-lifers for Survival and Feminists for Life, two antiabortion groups, are founded.
1972	The Supreme Court rules that a law banning the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people violates a constitutional right to privacy in Eisenstadt v. Baird.
1973	Supreme Court hands down Roe v. Wade decision, announcing that the U.S. Constitution protects a woman’s right to decide whether to end a pregnancy. National Right to Life Committee is formed in response to the Roe v. Wade decision.
	The National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws is renamed, becoming the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
1973	The first pregnancy using in vitro fertilization (IVF) is achieved but results in early embryo death.
1975	The U.S. Supreme Court rules that paid commercial advertisements are protected by the First Amendment in Bigelow v. Virginia. The case is in response to a newspaper publishing an ad for an out-of-state abortion clinic.
1976	The Supreme Court rules unanimously in Bellotti v. Baird that the district court should not have decided the constitutionality of a Massachusetts statute requiring parental consent until the state court had interpreted it. They further rule that a state may, in some circumstances, require parental consent before performing an abortion on a minor.
	The Supreme Court strikes down a Missouri statute requiring spousal permission for a woman seeking an abortion and requiring the physician to save the life of the fetus at every stage in Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth.
1977	The Hyde Amendment is enacted, denying public funds for abortion. Following the amendment, Medicaid may be used for an abortion only to save the woman’s life. In 1994, the amendment is expanded to allow Medicaid coverage for cases of rape and incest.
	The Supreme Court upholds state regulations barring the use of public funds for an elective abortion in Beal v. Doe and Maher v. Roe.
	The Supreme Court upholds the refusal of a public hospital to provide publicly funded abortions when there is no threat to the life of the woman in Poelker v. Doe.
1978	Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, is born in England.
1981	Elizabeth Carr, America’s first IVF baby, is born.
1984	Zoe Leyland is born in Australia, the first child to be born from a frozen embryo.
	Antiabortion movie The Silent Scream is released.
1985	The United States has some 169 IVF clinics, although many have not yet reported a live birth.
1988	The first American baby is born from a donor egg.
	In the Baby M case, the New Jersey Supreme Court awards custody and parental rights to William Stern, while granting surrogate mother, Mary Beth Whitehead visitation rights.
	Operation Rescue is established.
1989	The Supreme Court upholds a Missouri statute prohibiting the use of public facilities to perform abortions in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. For the first time since Roe v. Wade, only a minority of the Justices vote to reaffirm Roe.
1992	The FDA approves Depo-Provera for contraceptive use.
1993	March 10. Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider in Florida, is shot to death.
1994	Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is designed to curtail escalating clinic violence.
1997	The first U.S. baby is born from a frozen egg.
	The McCaughey septuplets are born in Iowa, the result of fertility treatments.
2000	Rebecca Corneau is placed in custody in Massachusetts, after she refuses to undergo a court-ordered prenatal exam, arguing that it is against her religious beliefs. She gives birth to a healthy baby girl, which is then placed in the custody of the court.
	The Supreme Court invalidates a Nebraska law banning so-called partial birth abortions in Stenberg v. Carhart. The Court notes that the statute offers no exceptions to protect the health of the woman and is written in such a broad manner that it could apply to other commonly used methods of abortion.
	The FDA approves mifepristone (RU-486) for use as an option for nonsurgical abortion.
2002	Media reports claim that the first human clone has been born to an American mother. The second child is apparently born in January 2003 in the Netherlands.

contraceptive kit, offering women an over-the-counter method of preventing fertilization.

The development of the Pill inspired further research into hormonal methods of contraception. In 1992 the FDA approved Depo-Provera, a long-term progesterone-based contraceptive that is injected into the woman every 3 months. Progesterone also became available in the form of pellets inserted under the skin, for slow release into the woman’s bloodstream. Known as Norplant, this system was approved for use in the United States in 1990, although women in many other nations had already been using it for some time.

Norplant soon became a subject of controversy, however, as American women began to complain of side effects and painful scarring resulting from removal of the rods by untrained medical staff. Although many of the complaints have been dismissed, Norplant’s reputation remains sullied by the problems. Adding to its negative image were stories about contraceptive abuses. It was learned, for example, that Norplant had been tested on many Third World women without adequate disclosure of the potential dangers. Furthermore, courts in the United States began approving compulsory implantation for women convicted of child abuse, raising a number of human rights questions. Recent developments in Norplant technology include replacement of the earlier five-rod system with a two-rod system and a bio-degradable implant.

The only permanent forms of contraception yet known are the vasectomy for men and tubal ligation for women. The vasectomy procedure, first performed on a prison inmate, dates to 1899. Tubal ligation, dating to the 1880s in the United States, was the last method to gain social acceptance but is now the most popular form of birth control in the nation.

Abortion Technologies

Certainly the most contentious issue in the realm of reproductive rights over the past 30 years has been abortion. Simply defined, abortion is the termination of a pregnancy owing to or resulting in the death of the fetus. The term includes spontaneous abortio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Topic Finder
• Cross Reference Index
• Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6
• Volume 7
• Volume 8