An anti-birth control advertisement. Courtesy of Imgur.
Social Barriers
Concerns about “promiscuity” and advocacy of “family planning” became common in the early 1960s as people began to discuss the moral implications of the Pill.
Increased use of the Pill in the 1960s prompted fears of female “promiscuity.” Critics asserted that the Pill would lead women to make overly liberal sexual choices while advocates argued that these choices were functions of women's individual personalities, not of contraceptives.
Excerpt from "Revolution in a Pill", 2010. Courtesy of CBS News.
Audio Recording of Jim Sedlak, Vice President of the American Life League, February 24th, 2020. Personal Interview.
“Family planning” enabled women to control the timing and number of their pregnancies. Consequently, women gained increased economic freedom and opportunities to join the work force. While contraception advocates defended these benefits, opponents argued that regulating family size was immoral.
"We are totally opposed to the oral contraceptive. It is a very dangerous drug [...] There's a lot of deep problems with the birth control pill and the way it affects a woman's body and we recommend that they really look into it and find out about all the effects on the body, because we believe that once they find that out, they'll stop using it."
- Jim Sedlak, Vice President of the American Life League, February 24th, 2020. Personal Interview.