Share Your Story or Your Mother's Story about the Challenges of Accessing Birth Control
It's been nearly fifty years since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Connecticut v Griswold striking down state bans on birth control. Since then, contraception has become so central to women's lives that 98 percent of women use it at some point during our reproductive years. Yet we still see politicians re-litigating accessible, affordable contraception and other women's health needs.
Have you ever asked your mom, aunt, grandmother, or another loved one in your life what challenges she had gaining access to birth control? We want to hear the stories!
How You Can Help
Sign Up for Email Updates
Follow Us on the Web
Join the New Reproductive Health Campaign
Go to ThisIsPersonal.org to get the facts and tools you need to help protect women's reproductive health.
Your Stories
Dorothy Pappas Owen
Salt Lake City, Utah, Grant coordinsator
In 1968 my mother died unexplectantly at the age of 42. She had four children ages 6-16 at the time. She had not been well for several years but the doctors could never figure out what the problem was. Taking care of 4 children was difficult given her health problems and the fact that our father, who worked as a civilian engineer for the Air Force, often had to be away from home for months at a time work. So it was understandable that she was on birth control pills--in fact she was the only person I knew who was. When she died she was in the hospital and the doctor ordered an autopsy and asked that specifically look to see any evidence that the birth control pills had contributed to her death. I was 16 at the time and I clearly remember this concern. The autopsy showed she died frm polyarteritis a degenerative and fatal collapsing of the blood vessels for which no cause was known at the time. I don't know if she had difficulty accessing the birth control pills but the whole episode made me realize how little people knew about the "PILL" and its effects.
|
Laura Syperda
, Or,
I am 63 years old. When I was 23,single with no children, I moved to a new town & sought birth control from a new gynochlogist. I had been taking birth control pills since I was 16 to regulate extremely painful and irregular periods. With this history I did not expect any problems refilling my prescription. I was shocked to my core when the doctor told me I should have a complete hysterectomy, as the best cure for "problem periods". He told me that "female organs were prone to cause cancer anyway & I'd be better off without them". I was so outraged, I asked him if he'd had those cancer causing balls of his removed yet! and I stomped out. We have been humiliated & treated like animals; we have fought this wretched ignorance too long to slide back now. Stand up, people, stand up for good, practical, fair medical treatment. Stand up for dignity & equal rights. When women are mistreated, misdiagnosed & and humiliated, all of society is harmed!
|
Les
Tempe, AZ, retured
My Mothers Mother (Gran) had an illegal abortion during the depression. She had 2 children at the time and was barely able to feed them. The abortion left her unable to have more children when times got better and this was a great tragedy in her life.Before my mother married shewas fitted for a diaphragm. This is not the best type of birth control for a married couple. Mom had 2 more children than she had planned on. Dad was very happy with this.When I decided to become sexually active, I went to planned parenthood and asked for the pill. THe doctor told me I had to bring in a wedding invitation to get birth control. I went back to my fiancee and cried all over him. We used condoms and were nervous. We eventuallly married and had 2 children. I have never been pregnant when I did not want to be but it has taken thought and good planning.I will say that once I was married no one hassled me about birth control but things are getting worse on that front.My Daughter-in-law NEVER wanted to have children. She first tried to get her tubes tied when she was 18. She has never succeeded with that goal. The best she was able to do was Norplant. When the Norplant needed to be renewed, she found it was no longer available in the USA. She is now in her 40s and has opted for a helical plug that plugs and scars her fallopian tubes. She did not want my son to have a vasectomy because she knew that if she "walked in front of a bus" he might remarry and want children.
|
Kathleen Rueppel
San Antonio, TX, German language instructor
This is a story about myself, in the early 1970's. I had two children, the second of which was born with only half the red blood cells she needed, because of an Rh-factor problem. Only after a complete transfusion and one month later another transfusion did my daughter begin to thrive. Unfortunately, I was not a candidate for a medication which would prevent such problems with Rh. I decided I did not want any more children, especially since this problem becomes progressively worse with each pregnancy. When I asked a male doctor about having my tubes tied, he refused to do it, giving the following reasons: 1) I was too young. (I was in my 20's and, afterall, the breeding machine still had a few good years.) 2) I had to have my husband's permission (since he might well want more children); what I wanted was secondary. 3) I might change my mind later on. When I pointed out that I already had the number of children I wanted, he replied that my husband could well decide he wanted more children...in other words, I should have no say in whether I wanted to go through another pregnancy. Even the health of the fetus was not considered.Thank God I found a female gynecologist who agreed to do the operation; yet even she said, by law, I had to have a signed statement from my husband agreeing to the procedure. We have a long way to go before we acheive any sort of equality. Men still run the show - as was shown at the gathering of an all male panel before the Senate; but I guess, until men start having babies, there will be no serious discussion from them about contraception.
|
Marjorie Berk
New York, New York, retired
I have been a "senior citizen" for quite a while now so I didn't have a "mom". I had a mother! "Mom" was a term of endearment and not a substitute for a perfectly good word. I think the use of mom replacing mother has diminished the importance of a woman's role as more than a child caretaker. A mother was an imposing figure who ran a household; a mom is someone of little relevance beyond child rearing.I lived my young adult years before Roe vs. Wade and lived in fear lest my contraception fail. Oddly enough, abortion was not a moral issue then -- just a criminal one. In my world an abortion was crucial, when needed, to maintain one's personal and economic life. The Catholic Church seemed as closed on the issue as it was of sexual abuse. Orthodox Jews were not "ultra" then and accepted abortion as did most Protestant sects, where it was avoided as an issue. Many of my friends, of various religious and political stripes, managed to get "safe" abortions, some in Puerto Rico, and there was never a question of "murder". Society simply did not accept single mothers (not moms) and life as such would have been truly unbearable!
|
Mickie Flanigan
Chicago, IL, retired
I graduated from college in 1966 and there were no business job opportunities for women. Employers were allowed to ask if you planned to have a family and always argued that they did not want to train someone who was going to leave to have a family (and were allowed to assume all young women were going to leave to have a family). Birth control became widely available as I was graduating and gave women control of their reproductive choices and therefore gave them job opportunities. A reversal of birth control rights is essentially a reversal of the limited job rights we now have.
|
Kristina Meservey
Eastham, Massachusetts, retired pediatric nurse practitioner
As a student at Duke University from 1965-1969, the only way to access birth control pills was with a copy of a marriage license. I was in the Navy from 1968-89, and at Charleston, SC from 1969-73 Nurse's Health Records were kept in a locked file cabinet in the Chief Nurse's Office. The current issues within the military with rape and sexual assault occurred in my perception because responsibility for investigating these issues was taken away from medical, given to social work, and then returned to the Military Line. We have come a long way and have alot further to hopefully go. I pray that progressives are elected this November and am working hard for President Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and Bill Keating. Kristina Meservey
|
Kristina Meservey
Eastham, Massachusetts, retired pediatric nurse practitioner
As a student at Duke University from 1965-1969, the only way to access birth control pills was with a copy of a marriage license. I was in the Navy from 1968-89, and at Charleston, SC from 1969-73 Nurse's Health Records were kept in a locked file cabinet in the Chief Nurse's Office. The current issues within the military with rape and sexual assault occurred in my perception because responsibility for investigating these issues was taken away from medical, given to social work, and then returned to the Military Line. We have come a long way and have alot further to hopefully go. I pray that progressives are elected this November and am working hard for President Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and Bill Keating. Kristina Meservey
|
Darlene Larive
Lead, South Dakota, Unemployed
My Mother was raised with a Catholic background and therefore this is how my brothers and sister and myself were raised. There were 6 children in my family, ( 4 boys and 2 girls). My Mother divorced ( which was also a no-no) and remarried having three more children, all boys. The youngest boy died two months after birth from water on the brain.
My Mother tried to get her tubes tied or have a hysterectomy after her first 6 chilldren but because of religion no one would allow this. They did not allow for any form of birth control either (because of religion).
Then when she remarried she had three more. Finally after the death of her third son from the second marriage they allowed her to have a hysterectomy.
|
Annette Nevitt
Denver, CO, SSA Quality Assurance Disability Examiner
My Mom is 94 years old. She not only was told she could not take birth control of any kind without harming her body, but she was called an abortionist! My mother and father had the RH factor and could get pregnant quickly and easily, but my Mother could not carry the fetus to term and it would miscarry. Her and Dad suffered a total of 13 miscarriages and she was called an abortionist. The doctor told my Dad that if he continued to have sex with my Mother and got her pregnant she would die. Needless to say, they sustained for almost 5 years before my Mother got sick and tired of it all. So, she took advantage of my Dad's poker night out with the boys, knowing he and the boys would have a few beers and seduced him when he got home. Well, I am here to tell you it worked! She was 41 years old when she gave birth to me and no specialist would take her care/case. She told them her and the good Lord would have this baby and did not get any treatment until she was 6 months pregnant and then a family GP took her on. Her and Dad were my best advocates for staying healthy and choosing to get pregnant if and when I was ready. They went with me to the doctor before I started college, were proud to have me get on birth control and proud to convince me that I could do anything I wanted. No one and nothing could stand in my way except me, myself and I. They also went with me and each of my 3 daughters when they started college to talk to the doctors and get them started on birth control. They are and always will be my heros!
|
Add Your Story