Jalen Woods

History 153

Portfolio Reflection: Technology

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Throughout the semester, law/ethics have seemed to significantly influence individuals

from 20th century America to act responsibly and contribute towards society more than anything

else. One of several reasons I believe laws and ethics was the most important because there were

several laws that were created, fixed, or changed during the 20th century which helped woman,

kids, the United States, and much more. Laws that developed from cases such as Roe vs. Wade,

the equal rights amendment, and the creation of birth control impacted America positively and

helped better society.

A great example would be Roe v. Wade, which we learned in module 12 “A new

America”. Roe v. Wade happened in 1973, with a vote of 7-2, it legalized abortion for women in

the first trimester of pregnancy. Before this was passed women were going to black markets and

having the procedure done by a illegal physicians due to it being illegal to have an abortion, or

they even did the procedure themselves. This law was a form of privacy, which women were not

given before it was passed. Ever since the law has been passed, we now have planned parenthood

and inexpensive abortions. Even though this was passed in 1973, 45 years ago, the fate of Roe v.

Wade still continues to lie with the supreme court.

According to Goss, Roe v. Wade was very important to be passed. It was important

because, Norma McCorvey who was referred to as Jane Roe, sued the state of Texas. Dallas,

Texas banned abortion unless it was a life-threatening situation. Norma McCorvey was not

married, but was pregnant with her third child(Goss). McCorvey had reported that she was raped,

but ended up having to stop claiming due to not having much of a police report (Goss).

The second example I’ll be discussing is the equal rights amendment, which was also

taught module 12 “A new America”. This amendment was written to guarantee equal rights for

every human no matter if they were male or female. In other words, it got rid of all legal gender
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discrimination across the United States. It was first proposed by in Congress by the National

Women's Party in 1923. It was a two-step process: first, the Congress must propose the

amendment by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. After the proposal, it must be

ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. After the law was passed, it swept away things

such as sexual assault and alimony. The likelihood for the mother to receive child custody in a

divorce case would be erased. Having only males in the military would soon change to accepting

females to fight for our country. The amendment had began to pass in 1972. In 1982 it had just

35 state votes, which caused it to fall short to passing because it didn’t have 38 state votes to be

passed.

The fight for women’s rights continued after the bill was not passed. The Equal Rights

Amendment was significant because it pushed for women to have equal rights in the United

States. "The movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a

great mosaic at the end”, a quote from Alice Paul, one of the main individuals fighting for

women’s rights (“The Equal Rights Amendment: Unfinished Business for the Constitution.”).

Due to this movement, women today are treated with much more respect and equal rights,

compared to men.

The third example that was taught in module 12 “A new America,” is the fight for

reproductive rights. When it came to this situation, consequences of sexual relations between

women and men simply were not fair. The fight for reproductive freedoms was a tough one. The

fight had a lot to do with women have control over, that is if a relationship resulted in a

pregnancy. With birth control being introduced in 1960, women finally had a way of preventing

pregnancy. Birth control had made it able for women to the ability to divide childbearing and

sexuality. This allowed for young couples to live together and be able to have sex before
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marriage, this action began to spread across the country and increase drastically. It was a change

in the way we lived. It was stated that young people were more open about private things instead

of the old traditional way of keeping things private and not allowing the public to be able to

know information like that. Dealing with this situation, movies became X-rated or rated-R which

were new boundaries and became more common in the world.

According to Marcotte, there are several reasons why birth control is important to the

world. These reasons include a decline in teen birth rate, women’s educational attainment has

surged, economic benefits, and it makes people happier. There is a decline in teen birth rate due

to better contraception use, plain and simple (Marcotte).

When it comes to women’s educational attainment surging, in 1970 there were only 8%

women being college graduates. Now, more than 35 percent of women ages 24 to 35 have a

college degree (Marcotte). The economic benefits to women taking birth control, the earlier

women take the pill contributes to them making more money during their life (Marcotte).

“Unintended childbearing is linked to lower participation in the job market and higher

dependency on government services” (Marcotte), which is obviously something we do not

women to have to worry about. Women having to depend on the government services because

they aren’t able to find a job would mean that they would not be stable enough to care for a baby

because they can not provide for themselves either.

Having sex that does not include getting pregnant and having a baby has a positive effect

on the health of your relationship and mental health (Marcotte). When unplanned pregnancy

occurs, it increases conflict in a relationship, and couples who go through pregnancy that is not

plan tend to break up compared to couples who plan their pregnancies(Marcotte). Women who
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deal with unintended pregnancies tend to deal with depression more and decreased levels of

happiness compared to women who plan their pregnancies (Marcotte).

Laws and ethics are were important throughout the 20th century in helping the United

States form significant policies that benefited all of citizens here. Laws that developed from

cases such as Roe vs. Wade, the equal rights amendment, and the creation of birth control

impacted America positively and helped change it for the better. All of the different laws created

significantly influence individuals from 20th century America to act responsibly and contribute

towards society.

Works Cited
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Goss, Jennifer L. “Why Is Roe v. Wade So Important?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo,

www.thoughtco.com/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-1779383.

Jennifer L Goss gave a brief example of why Roe v Wade was very important. It explained

the situation that Norma McCorvey, who had claimed to have been raped which

caused her third pregnancy, but it was soon dropped because there was not enough

information for a police report.

Marcotte, Amanda. “5 Ways Birth Control Has Changed America.” Rolling Stone, Rolling

Stone, 5 June 2015, www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/5-ways-birth-control-has-

changed-america-20150605.

Amanda Marcotte gave us five reasons why birth control was important and had changed

america. Each of the five reasons gave great reasons to why it was important and

changed America. The reasons were that it made people happier, benefited the

economy, decline in teen birth rate, women’s educational attainment surged, and wild

oats are being sown.

“The Equal Rights Amendment: Unfinished Business for the Constitution.” ERA: Home,

www.equalrightsamendment.org/.

On this website, it explained the three sections of the amendment and what they meant. It

also explained the process that the amendment had to go through to attempt to be

used, and how the states would not ratify it. There was also a quote from Alice Paul,

who was a main influence of the movement.