Second-wave feminism and reproductive rights
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the changing political context of the period and the development of civil rights movements mobilized for radical change contributed to the emergence of a dynamic movement for women's rights. The widespread promotion of birth control reinforced the idea of women’s sexual emancipation. Thus, the early women’s rights movement proposed a reproductive rights discourse advocating sex equality arguments and advanced abortion rights claims that they tied to questions of political participation, work, education and social organization. They brought into the public an issue that had been forced into clandestinity for decades and redefined abortion by proposing a new approach …show more content…
Wade ended an era of illegality regarding abortion, these efforts turned out to be just the beginning of a long struggle to preserve safe and legal abortion and to guarantee its access to all women. In reaction to the expansion of women's reproductive rights and sexual freedom , several attempts have been made over the years, to overturn Roe or at least, to erode the constitutional protection for abortion rights. In the aftermath of Roe, the Supreme Court’s decisions aimed to infringe abortion access. In July 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment banning (Medicaid) public funding for abortion unless a woman's life was in danger. In 1989, in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Court adopted new restrictions prohibiting state funding of abortion. In 1990, the decision Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), upheld very strict parental notification laws. The 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, but allowed state regulation imposing several procedural requirements: a woman's informed consent, a 24-hour waiting period before performing an abortion, parental consent for a minor. In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion, or late term abortion. Several have states imposed abortion restrictions limiting late-term abortions, requiring parental notification, and mandatory disclosures of abortion risks. Moreover, a law passed in Texas in 2013, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt , placed …show more content…
The legalization of oral contraception predated the right to abortion by almost a decade and it is in the history of the birth control movement that lies the basis for understanding the current struggles over sexual and reproductive freedom in the united States. It laid the groundwork for changes in public policy and a long-lasting debate over reproductive rights, which reveals fractures and stagnation. From its inception as a group of birth control activists to its modern incarnation as a multitude of organizations attempting to secure the right to abortion, the movement fighting for reproductive rights has always insisted on the centrality of reproductive control to women’s status. At a time when some of the gains won by the women’s rights movement in the 1960s as regards sexual and reproductive issues are being attacked, women demonstrate resistance to defend the rights to make their own decisions about reproduction. Reproductive rights are still, and will continue to be, a divisive issue in the United States because they are inextricably intertwined with sexual freedom and women's emancipation
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the changing political context of the period and the development of civil rights movements mobilized for radical change contributed to the emergence of a dynamic movement for women's rights. The widespread promotion of birth control reinforced the idea of women’s sexual emancipation. Thus, the early women’s rights movement proposed a reproductive rights discourse advocating sex equality arguments and advanced abortion rights claims that they tied to questions of political participation, work, education and social organization. They brought into the public an issue that had been forced into clandestinity for decades and redefined abortion by proposing a new approach …show more content…
Wade ended an era of illegality regarding abortion, these efforts turned out to be just the beginning of a long struggle to preserve safe and legal abortion and to guarantee its access to all women. In reaction to the expansion of women's reproductive rights and sexual freedom , several attempts have been made over the years, to overturn Roe or at least, to erode the constitutional protection for abortion rights. In the aftermath of Roe, the Supreme Court’s decisions aimed to infringe abortion access. In July 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment banning (Medicaid) public funding for abortion unless a woman's life was in danger. In 1989, in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Court adopted new restrictions prohibiting state funding of abortion. In 1990, the decision Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), upheld very strict parental notification laws. The 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, but allowed state regulation imposing several procedural requirements: a woman's informed consent, a 24-hour waiting period before performing an abortion, parental consent for a minor. In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion, or late term abortion. Several have states imposed abortion restrictions limiting late-term abortions, requiring parental notification, and mandatory disclosures of abortion risks. Moreover, a law passed in Texas in 2013, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt , placed …show more content…
The legalization of oral contraception predated the right to abortion by almost a decade and it is in the history of the birth control movement that lies the basis for understanding the current struggles over sexual and reproductive freedom in the united States. It laid the groundwork for changes in public policy and a long-lasting debate over reproductive rights, which reveals fractures and stagnation. From its inception as a group of birth control activists to its modern incarnation as a multitude of organizations attempting to secure the right to abortion, the movement fighting for reproductive rights has always insisted on the centrality of reproductive control to women’s status. At a time when some of the gains won by the women’s rights movement in the 1960s as regards sexual and reproductive issues are being attacked, women demonstrate resistance to defend the rights to make their own decisions about reproduction. Reproductive rights are still, and will continue to be, a divisive issue in the United States because they are inextricably intertwined with sexual freedom and women's emancipation