Analyze Views of Women’s Reproductive Solution in the 19th Century and Interpret Their Historical And Contemporary Impact

Women have fought throughout history to have equal rights including reproductive issues. Women were treated unequal and unfairly. Abortion was illegal and women had no opportunity to choose what they were desired related to family matters systems which led them to bearing unwanted children and having a set role that solely allowed to them to be scrutinized and unappreciated. It was hard to hear women’s voice in 19thcentury. The women’s movement inthat century developed women’s dependent situations. It created a series of new images for women. They had tried to prove that women deserved to be treated as equal to men and they started acting in order to have their rights and equal chances. This paper seeks to review the evolution of women’s rights to abortion, the use of contraceptives and the generations of fightingfor equal rights which include as movements in the Civil War, in the 19thcentury, and the suffrage movements.Women’s rights were nonexistent in the early 19thcentury. Brodie (1997) mentioned as “Men imposed decisions on women’s reproduction systems, use of contraceptives, and the entire sexual life”. For instance, women decisions to have abortions, use contraceptives, and protest sexual activities were highly opposed by men, which made it nearly impossible for a woman to have equality and empowerment (Lynne Marie Kohm and Colleen Holmes, 2000). Prior to 19th century, women had absolutely no rights and their only purpose was to bear children, up bring them, and most importantly, take care of their husbands.

According to History of Abortion ( 2016), throughout history abortion has been used to control reproduction. By 1880, most abortions were illegal in the U.S. except to save the life of a woman (History of Abortion, 2016). There was an upward surge in the use of contraceptives and even abortion even though it had not been legalized. The consequence of this was a reduction in population growth and an improvement in provision of social amenities. However, women’s use of contraceptives was significantly hampered by cultural and religious views that had different notions to oppose the idea of reproductive solutions (Endres, K. L., 1986). For instance, the Catholics believed the use of birth controls was an artificial way of managing God’s creation, which should never be the case. On the other hand, cultural activist advocate for natural methods of birth control and more to this, children were perceived as a sign of wealth and, thus, having to limit one’s family size was not desirable. Worse still, allowing everyone to access contraceptives