In the current world, women's reproductive rights are a worldwide issue. Although in some nations women voices are overlooked, they have to struggle to have the right to control their own bodies and reproductive choices. The worldwide subject of women's reproductive rights encompasses family planning services, abortion, contraceptives, and sterilization. Prior to the19th century, women only purpose was to look after their husbands, bear children and bring them up, they absolutely had no rights. Women had a set role that solely made them be scrutinized and unappreciated, bearing unwanted children since they could not control their own reproductive system because they had very little to say in society (Marston, Cicely, and John, 45).
Men's Control over Women's Reproductive Systems
In essence, men made decisions in regard to women's reproductive systems, sexual life, and use of contraceptives. It was nearly impossible for a woman to have empowerment and equality since men highly opposed women decisions to use contraceptives, have abortions, and protest sexual activities. The essay seeks to explain the different issues on reproductive rights, abortion, and contraception by examining plans in advancing the choices women were proposed within abortions, abstinence, and family planning. The various reasons for the opposition to use contraceptives, the family control plans, and abortions will be elaborated, and how these aspects came to change in the mid-1900s.
The Struggle for Women's Rights
Beginning with an important history, it is worth observing that the word feminism originated from the relationship with the campaign for political and equal legal rights for women, in the 1800s and throughout the 19th century, the oppression for women continued. With this, there was a struggle for women's rights which comprised women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These two undertook the struggle for women's rights together with reproductive solutions which were popular in the early 1800s. Efforts focused on women's suffrage did not happen until 1912 when a key political Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party supported women's suffrage, for the first time it received support at the national level (Kulczycki, 78).
Gender Inequality and Restriction of Women's Decisions
Between the two genders at this time, there was a big gap and there was only one depiction on the meaning of a woman. In this era, women were excluded in family decision making, owning property, or abandoning their husbands in conditions like abuse because women's decisions were restricted to childbearing, motherhood, and being married. It was apparent unnatural for a woman to be working, they were highly discouraged from it, although they could get inferior employments such as working in factories or shop attendants. Women had to seek permission from their husbands or support in any issue, the few who went against the societal beliefs and got jobs were subjected to the punitive working environment and poor pay. In essence, women could not make decisions on own and they were viewed as inferior beings and this perception of women extended to all dimensions of life.
Changes in Women's Reproductive Rights
In the nineteenth century, the United States was characterized by two key developments which were focused on finding a solution to women's dependent situation thus making a new outlook of women to revoke the previous perception that women were actually inferior to men. Women progressively became more visible and terminated the patriarchal control that was dominant in various western nations in the latter of the 19th century which was characterized by the evolution of feminism. Evidently, despite the fact that abortion was illegal there was an upward surge in the use of contraceptives. As a result, there was an improvement in the provision of social services due to a decrease in population growth. However, the idea of reproductive rights was opposed by cultural and religious views that had different perceptions thus women's use of contraceptives was significantly hindered. For example, Catholics believed that it was an artificial method of controlling God's creation through the use of birth controls, which not even be the case. On the other hand, cultural activists perceived children as a sign of wealth and, thus, there was no need to limit a person's family, although they advocated for natural methods of birth control. Worse still, permitting everybody to use contraceptive was not in order since was a straight way of boosting immorality, but in 1957 the food and drug administration approved contraception and finally, the feminist movement saw some progress in their struggle (Delvaux, Thérèse, and Christiana, 205).
The Second Wave of Women's Rights Movement
In 1960, there was the second wave of women's rights movement that attracted numerous opinions in relation to women's reproductive health, it promoted voluntary motherhood. The activists were of the opinion that the mother would be responsible if they became mothers willingly and this would happen if they had the ability to control their reproductive systems. However, the promoters of voluntary motherhood were in support of abstinence or permitting intercourse only when a woman desired to conceive. This right was strange as its direct consequence would be a collapse of families. However, irrespective of the contrasting opinions it would improve women's self-respect, aspirations, and total control of their family sizes. Women's right to reproduction is that birth control approaches must be free and accessible to all individuals including undocumented immigrants. This can be helpful since parents can be able to control their family sizes, consequently, this can control the entire population. However, offering free contraceptives to all people can promote immoral conducts, consequently, increasing prostitution and transmission of sexually related illnesses. Besides, the school should have a comprehensive education on sexuality instead of education on abstinence and abstinence-only education should be reviewed. As this equips children with significant information related to the subject of sexuality, as a result, it can promote immoral conduct because of experimentation that characterizes the young age group. A precise, well-balanced sex education for youths, mainly female students who want to prevent pregnancy can lead to other adverse consequences such as the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases. In contrast, the religious opinion is that young people should be educated on abstinence-only, possibly the general sex education would be appropriate if taught to people in marriage (Malhotra, 129).
Controversies Surrounding Abortion
In the mid-19th century, the number of abortions increased as many women were working and could not remain at home nurturing pregnancies therefore opting to have an abortion. Despite the struggle for the use of contraceptives, at times they were not working for all women leading to these women getting unplanned pregnancies which end in abortion and in turn abortion leads to infection and serious sickness. There are contrasting opinions in relation to the subject of abortion with some people advocating and others opposing. To begin with the positive views, promoters propose that abortion is just a birth control approach like any other, thus, it should be offered to a woman upon request. Moreover, women have the capability to make moral decisions regarding their own bodies, their own bodies since they are rational agents, for example, choosing to give birth. Any woman should be permitted to have an abortion in case she gets pregnant contrary to her wish. More essentially, some women can get pregnant even after taking preventative measures as some contraceptives do not work for all women.
Opposition to Abortion as a Reproductive Right
On the contrary, antagonists of abortion as a reproductive right state that abortion is immoral and actually it amounts to murder. In principle, life starts at conception, hence, after a few hours, an embryo is equivalent to a human being. In addition, permitting abortion is an indirect way of promoting unprotected sex, which leads to other adverse situations such as sexually transmitted sickness. Besides, lack of an education, an absence of moral control, low self-esteem, sexual exploitation, and immoral sexual conduct are foundational problems that result in an unwanted pregnancy, and abortion, in this case, does not solve these problems. In Europe and the United States, abortion is widely used, yet these varied opinions make abortion to be a controversial birth control method (Malhotra, 89).
Social and Cultural Views on Women's Reproductive Rights
There are two-sided debates in regard to the efficiency of women reproductive system control, with one side stating that the women had turned to discard their societal responsibilities for their selfish fulfillment. It is viewed that women support small sizes of the family so as to evade their natural duties of childbearing and upbringing. In previous years, it was unacceptable for women to concentrate on seeking employment opportunities since it was viewed as a way to equalize themselves with men. On the same note, because the middle and upper classes of the society were in a position to access information, they highly felt this wave of feminism. Consequently, there are large family sizes among the poor and small family sizes among the rich.
The Campaign for Voluntary Womanhood and Different Perspectives
In addition, voluntary womanhood seems to be more cultural contradicting and more rational within feminism that would have big outcomes without any harmful effects. It is remarkable that the voluntary womanhood campaign is an inclusive campaign that promotes women's rights in their whole. For example, it promotes general, women empowerment, equality at the work environment and divorce rights, unlike the birth control campaign that mainly focuses on managing family sizes. Additionally, women need recognition and respect that comes with motherhood when they equally desire freedom to exercise liberty in childbearing. Again, women need the freedom to have pregnancy just as they need the freedom to have male sexual tyranny. In relation to this, mainly to married women to completely abstain as a form of birth control, it is not workable because it can only distract marriage institutions. Another view related to this reproductive control approach is that it is anticipated to have adverse effects on the users because it is mainly hormonal based (Sedlecky, Katarina, and Zoran, 120).
Current Status of Women's Reproductive Rights
Irrespective of all these achievements, there is still a restriction on women's reproductive organs through the law. Moreover, there is an indication that women have not yet expressed their protests to their totality since women's right to abortion and access to contraceptives are still protested. Nevertheless, women are still demanding to have a voice over the control of their own bodies. Currently, women are in a position to make choices about family planning, contraceptives and abortion in the western world. It is remarkable at a family doctor's office and at family planning organizations, there are numerous contraceptives accessible. For the sexually abused women and other rape victims, there are also alternative contraceptives that are of major importance, though just like any other contraceptive have linked consequences. Women have the ability to give birth to a controllable number of children or rather plan their families, as a result, better living standards due to the effect of the various accessible birth controls. Consequently, unlike in the traditional era, women have attained a better societal position out of the patriarchy environment that they were restricted. Lastly, women have further improved their self-esteem and self-efficacy through the opportunity to discover other aspects of life due to the ability to control their family size (Capo, Beth, and Waltraud, 98).
Conclusion
In conclusion, women's main purpose in life was to appease men and bear children and they had no rights before the 1900s. As time passed by the end of the 19th-century women evolved and the view of the society had changed so women were viewed to have the ability that made them make their own choices and decisions. This was formerly obsolete, so it is a major developmental change. The 19th-century women had reproductive rights that put them in a position to gain a sense of self-esteem and independence and manageable decisions on the size of the family, thus, characterizing a significant development. However, the women's reproductive rights attracted varying opinions from society with feelings that women were evading their duties given to them by nature. Others had the view that some birth control approach like abortion promoted immorality in the community and it was inhuman. Nevertheless, women's reproductive rights are evident today, so the 19th-century era is marked with major achievements.
Works Cited
Capo, Beth W, and Waltraud Maierhofer. Reproductive Rights Issues in Popular Media: Internationalperspectives. , 2017. Print.
Delvaux, Thérèse, and Christiana Nöstlinger. "Reproductive Choice For Women And Men Living With HIV: Contraception, Abortion And Fertility". Reproductive Health Matters, vol 15, no. sup29, 2007, pp. 46-66. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1016/s0968-8080(07)29031-7.
Kulczycki, Andrzej. Critical Issues in Reproductive Health. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. Print.
Marston, Cicely, and John Cleland. "Relationships Between Contraception And Abortion: A Review Of The Evidence". International Family Planning Perspectives, vol 29, no. 1, 2003, p. 6. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/3180995.
Malhotra, Gagandeep Kaur. "Struggle Of Women For Asserting Her Rights: An Everlasting Saga". SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014. Elsevier BV, doi:10.2139/ssrn.2403241.
Sedlecky, Katarina, and Zoran Stanković. "Contraception For Adolescents After Abortion". The European Journal Of Contraception " Reproductive Health Care, vol 21, no. 1, 2015, pp. 4-14. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.3109/13625187.2015.1082175.
