<p>This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing.</p><p>The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men.</p><p>The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility and remained within a female sphere throughout the fertility transition.</p><p>When people motivated their decision to apply birth control they referred to either the economic situation of the family, the reproductive health of the mother or the fact that they were not yet married. An overriding motive for the two first was a wish among the correspondents to remain respectable. Having a small family was in itself considered respectable by the end of the fertility transition. Acting responsibly in relation to ones children was another sign of respectability. For fathers this meant being able to support the family financially while mothers’ claim to respectability depended on the time they spent at home, with the children, as well as the appearance of both the children and the home.</p><p>The thesis concludes that the perceptions and experiences of individual men and women are of great importance when the fertility transition is studied. Reproductive decisions were made by individuals, and changes in fertility are therefore the consequence of many people deciding to alter ther sexual life in order to control reproduction. Research on the fertility transition would therefore gain credibility from integrating sources of a more qualitative character into the study.</p>

The feminist beliefs of abortion service providers and the effects of these beliefs on the delivery of health care to patients is examined by the author who is herself a feminist and member of an abortion clinic staff. Discussion includes abortion rates, abortion safety, characteristics of patients, and accessibility of abortion, particularly as affected by legislation and anti-abortion activism. The research consists of the author's personal experiences as a counselor and patient advocate, conducting patient health history interviews, supporting patients in the operating room, and attending patients during recovery. The data is presented in a personal narrative including autobiographical material, a methodological style supported by feminist theories which question the supposed objectivity and neutrality of conventional scientific methods. Three means by which feminist beliefs are expressed in the delivery of abortion services to patients are identified: the language used to refer to abortion and abortion-related services, the choice of abortion related topics addressed during clinic visits, and the reconfiguration of the conventional provider/patient relationship. / Graduation date: 1999

Thesis (Th.M. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

In this modern period, societal and religious groups are strongly divided regarding the acceptability of abortion. Despite so many attempts by various groups to find a middle ground, the debate on abortion still remains largely polarized, at its most dramatic point with the extreme conservatives claiming abortion to be the moral equivalent of murder and the extreme liberals see it as devoid of moral import. And this polarization is due to the legal battle that continues to shadow moral discussions. An acceptance of an ethical nuance will here play as a concession on the deeply contested question of whether abortion should be a legally protected option for a woman, and to an extent blame for the continued crudeness which can be laid at the doorstep of a moral theory itself. Apparently, the ethical literature on abortion has focused almost exclusively on the tiniest moral assessment on whether and when abortion is morally permissible. This question is a crucial one indeed and its answer is desperately sought in this thesis by exposing the position of the Catholic Church.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how the European union relates to the different dimensions of abortion. What kind of problem is abortion and whose right is it? Does difference framings of the problem enable different solutions? By analyzing debates from the European parliament through Carol Lee Bacchis method “What’s the problem approach” I have come to see that different representations of a problem changes the problem it self. This emphasis that a problem is a problem in one context, but not in an other. Depending on the work of, among others, Barbara Hobson and Ailbhe Smyth I have focused upon the European union as a economical project, leaving social issues to national competence. This makes the EU a patriarchal project that fails to guarantee women’s rights. By not being able to assure women the right of abortion, the women of Europe is treated as second class citizens. Through the eyes of the European union my material has shown that abortion is not only a conflict between the woman’s right to choose and the child’s right to live, but also a conflict of democracy. National sovereignty is challenged by a European citizenship of women. The right to information and the right to freedom of movement within the EU puts the European question of abortion in a new focus. By framing the problem of abortion as a problem of mobility it enables a way of placing women’s right in the free market system. A Europe that allows women to choose where to perform an abortion, and also provide them with information on contraceptives and the morning-after pill, is a Europe that falls within the idea of the EU as a economical project.

<p>It is not possible in this paper to deal with all the moral problems revolving at the &ldquo / beginning&rdquo / and &ldquo / end&rdquo / of human life in the modern world. However, something must be said about the question regarding respect for human life vis-&agrave / -vis abortion and euthanasia, since they are widely discussed today and since they strike at the very heart of traditional morality. The dignity and worth of individual life cannot be derived from analysis of individual life itself. Humanity is not the measure of all things. Whatever value human beings have is strictly transitory unless it is in our relationship to some ultimate source of value outside us. Christian faith understands human value as being established by our relationship with God - a relationship created and given by God himself. It is because we have our being from God and are sustained by God that we can meaningfully affirm the value of individual human life.</p>

This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing. The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men. The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility and remained within a female sphere throughout the fertility transition. When people motivated their decision to apply birth control they referred to either the economic situation of the family, the reproductive health of the mother or the fact that they were not yet married. An overriding motive for the two first was a wish among the correspondents to remain respectable. Having a small family was in itself considered respectable by the end of the fertility transition. Acting responsibly in relation to ones children was another sign of respectability. For fathers this meant being able to support the family financially while mothers’ claim to respectability depended on the time they spent at home, with the children, as well as the appearance of both the children and the home. The thesis concludes that the perceptions and experiences of individual men and women are of great importance when the fertility transition is studied. Reproductive decisions were made by individuals, and changes in fertility are therefore the consequence of many people deciding to alter ther sexual life in order to control reproduction. Research on the fertility transition would therefore gain credibility from integrating sources of a more qualitative character into the study.

Bakgrund: Den svenska abortlagen från 1 januari 1975, ger den gravida kvinnan rätt att själv bestämma om hon vill avbryta graviditeten. Mannens roll och behov nämns inte alls. Syfte: Att belysa kvinnors och mäns upplevelser och behov av stöd under abortprocessen. Metod: En systematisk litteraturstudie med 16 vetenskapliga artiklar analyserades och kvalitetsgranskades. Resultat: Litteraturstudien visade på abortupplevelsen som en jobbig period i livet men det resulterade även i en beslutsamhet och mognad. Diskussion: Resultatet tyder på att det är nödvändigt att få en ökad förståelse för den individuella vårdtagarens behov och förväntningar av vården och behandlingen. För att få en förståelse för mångsidigheten i abortsituationen bör man synliggöra både mannens och kvinnans delaktighet. Konklusion: Männens upplevelser av abortprocessen är föga outforskade. Sjuksköterskans roll i processen är betydelsefull och därför är det oerhört viktigt att personalen innehar kunskap och intresse att kunna bemöta dessa patienter.

No description available.

The first oral contraceptive was introduced in the United States during the 1960s, and, subsequently, there was an increase in women’s labor force participation rates. Although the economic role of oral contraceptives is still highly debated by scholars, previous studies have found that the pill had a statistically significant impact on women’s labor force participation rates. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women, I will analyze how hours worked, hourly wages, weekly earnings and occupations for women were affected by oral contraceptives. By controlling for various governing statutes that affected the availability of the use and distribution of oral contraceptives in different states, I am able to provide evidence highlighting the extent of the pill’s significance. I find that early legal access (ELA) to oral contraceptives that resulted from residential states legalizing abortion before others positively and significantly affects women’s hours worked, hourly wages, weekly earnings and whether or not women entered into professional occupations.