Blog posts should be 500 words in length. Make sure to provide specific details and cite sources.

1)Why was there so much controversy surrounding development of the birth-control pill? (Spefically, why did people opposed development of a drug to control fertility?). The main reason for so much controversy surrounding development of the birth-control pill is religion. The Catholic Church says that birth-control is immoral. At the beginning of development, many Protestants churches also believed this. A big reason for this opinion was that they believed that women would become promiscuous with the development of a female controlled birth-control. It was a huge double standard, because condoms were easy to come by later. There were many laws based off by the churches opinion. It was illegal to even talk about birth-control in public or share information. Margaret Sanger, a major leader for birth-control, went to prison many times because of these laws. 2) What methods had been used historically to prevent pregnancy (besides abstinence)? Before the pill, there were two common things that were used to prevent pregnancy. These were condoms or diaphragms. However, before the invention of these contraceptives people had other methods of contraception. Women would brew parsley and mint. They would also brew leaves and/or the bark of hawthorn. Ivy, willow, wallflower, myrtle, and poplar were also used in a similar fashion to prevent pregnancy. These were not really strange considering that some people thought kidney beans, apricot kernels, and mixed herbal potions were work as contraceptives. The weirdest things were spiders eggs, the kidney or uterus of a mule, and snakes which were sometimes also included these mixtures. The most dangerous was a Chinese contraceptive. Women would eat fried mercury. Not that women were the only ones trying to use a contraceptive, men also tried some. Men would eat the burned testicles of a castrated mule. 3) What were the contributions of Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick to the development of oral contraceptive pills for women? Margaret Sanger spent her entire life pursuing the knowledge and availability of contraceptives of women. She spent years fighting the laws that made these things illegal. Her dream was to have a pill women could take for contraceptive. She wanted a simple way for women to control their fertility. She didnt want to have them depend on condoms and diaphragms. She did not have the money to fund the creation of such a pill. Katherine McCormick did; she was a wealthy widow. She first got developed her belief in contraception when her husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She was determined not to have a child. When she met Sanger they both believed in this goal. 4)What were the contributions of Russell Marker, Carl Djerassi, and Gregory Pincus to the development of oral contraceptive pills for women? Russell Marker developed the technique that makes the pill possible. He wanted to find a cheaper way to get progesterone for research. He took a similar chemical and made it into a synthetic form of progesterone. Carl Djerassi took Markers research to another level. He made cortisone from diosgenin. One problem with this was to make diosgenin has a double-bonded oxygen for

cortisone. He solved this with his method. He later was able to make estrone and estradiol. This made producing the chemicals in mass quantities more cost effective. He then tried to synthesis progestin. He was trying to create an oral version of progesterone. Women were taking progesterone to prevent miscarriages. It had to be injected in large doses to work. Progestin was more powerful than progesterone and worked by being taken orally. Gregory Pincus was the first person to do research in creating a pill that would work as a contraceptive. After doing research, he discovered that progesterone would inhibit ovulation. He had to inject the test rabbits with progesterone to do this. He began looking into creating a pill of progesterone and he found out that one had already been created. 5) What are some of the social effects of females having access to oral contraceptives? Oral contraceptives had a huge effect on women. With the control of fertility they had time for other roles besides being a mother. They entered the work force in greater numbers. They went to college and got degrees in many different subjects. They were not just becoming nurses or other female professions; they became lawyers, doctors and other things. Women also were freer sexually. They didnt have to marry because they werent worried about pregnancy. They could have multiple sex partners in their life. This contraceptive door also opened up other taboo topics; they began discussing breast cancer and other female issues. 6) Describe how access to (or lack of) oral contraceptives impacted the life (and opportunities) of someone you know? My family has not really had a problem with accessing oral contraceptives. However, the problem has been finding one that is effective. My grandmother got pregnant at sixteen when she was on the pill. She was forced to give up her child up for adoption. Later when my grandfather got back from Vietnam, she got pregnant again. She had to marry him, which she would not have done if she hadnt gotten pregnant. My mother got pregnant at nineteen, while in high school; she was also on the pill. One of the major reasons she married my father was because they had a child. She got pregnant with me while on the pill a few months after my brother was born. They did not want to have another child right after my brother. My mother was extreme sick after she had him. She very nearly died having me. My parents were also extremely poor, so having two young children was very hard. My mom also couldnt work for a long time after she had me. My father never graduated high school, so finding a steady job was not easy. If my mother, or grandmother, had had an effective oral contraceptive their lives would have been extremely different.