Opinion: Modern birth control and its discriminative history continue to control women’s bodies.
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Use of birth control  across the U.S. has increased with the rise of reproductive rights in the past few decades. People with uteruses have various options, such as the pill, IUD, implant and patch. Yet its racist history shines through and creates a modern method of controlling women’s bodies. 

Since the earliest times, humanity has tried to control and prevent pregnancy. Childbirth has been dangerous, especially before modern medicine. It wasn’t until the 20th century that birth control started to progress. 

In 1907, Indiana passed the first eugenics law in the world, legalizing forced sterilization. Thirty-two other states eventually followed suit. Indiana’s law allowed anyone in state custody to be sterilized if deemed “unfit” to reproduce. Unsurprisingly, this targeted Black and Native American women and poor and disabled people. This form of birth control sterilized an estimated amount of 60,000 people.

The push for greater access to birth control started in 1921. After visiting poor neighborhoods in New York City, Margaret Sanger established the American Birth Control League. She too wanted to prevent “undesirable women” from reproducing. 

The organization was eventually transitioned into what we know as Planned Parenthood. Today, it acknowledges its discriminative roots. Merle McGee, the former chief equity and engagement officer for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, spoke about Planned Parenthood’s history with the Washington Post in 2020. 

“The Sanger legacy unchecked or unmet with a reckoning has been weaponized against women of color and has effectively hampered our ability to be in a right relationship with women of color,” McGee said. 

Scientists John Rock and Gregory Pincus announced the first birth control pill in the mid-1950s. But before the contraception became available to the public, it had to be tested. Two hundred poor Puerto Rican women signed up, not knowing they were a part of a clinical trial.

The scientists were easily able to exploit the women due to their lack of access. The pill had high levels of the hormone progesterone, leading to extreme side effects, sterilization and in rare cases, death.

Physicians Pamela Verma Liao and Janet Dollin addressed the Puerto Rican sterilization in their historical review of the pill.

“Despite the substantial positive effect of the pill, its history is marked by a lack of consent, a lack of full disclosure, a lack of true informed choice, and a lack of clinically relevant research regarding risk,” Liao and Dollin said.

Modern birth control is widely used and no longer engages in targeted sterilization. However, its control on women’s bodies and health persists. 

Six years ago, I started taking the pill. I was only 15. But because I got into my first serious relationship, it was considered “mandatory.” The pill immediately threw my hormones off balance. Weight gain, mood swings, suppressed sex drive, nausea, PH balance, change in appetite—you name it.

All birth control methods come with an information sheet listing the possible side effects. Yet it wasn’t until I went off the pill that I fully realized its effect on my body. Everything that I thought was normal wasn’t. I finally began to feel like myself.

After a few months, I started a new pill. Not because I wanted to, but because I felt like I needed birth control to engage in sexual activity. 

Students for Choice, a reproductive rights group at the University of Oregon, promotes education and activism on campus.
Society pressures women into thinking they can’t be sexual beings without birth control. That there is no other option. So when women choose to stay off, they are often judged within society, said member Renate Prazak.

Avery Cassler, a member of S4C, said, “There’s an expectation that biologically female bodies need to be regulated. We’re regulated since birth, and birth control is just an extension of that.”

Let me be clear in saying that access to and use of birth control are still important. Each individual has their own experience with birth control, good or bad. Instead of promoting birth control as the only option, there needs to be better sex education.

“Birth control is for everyone. It’s important to educate people about the safety of vasectomies and that they’re reversible,” Sydnee Warren from S4C said. “Expanding abortion access and sex education” are key to advocating reproductive rights.
Historical and modern birth control share a common purpose of regulating women’s bodies. Ultimately, reproductive rights aren’t about preventing pregnancy, but rather empowering women to finally take control of their bodies.