contraception

Examples of contraception in the following topics:

• Gender Inequality in Health Care

  • The Obama administration faced another controversy over gender equity in healthcare in 2012 with the administration's contraceptive mandate.
  • The effective meaning of Secretary Sebelius' announcement was that contraceptives are considered by the Obama administration to be a requisite component of health care.
  • The premise of the contraceptive mandate demonstrates present inequities in the American health care industry for male and female patients.
  • In the context of the 2012 contraceptive mandate debate, health care professionals' assessments that contraception is an integral component for women's health care, regardless of sexual activity, went largely unaddressed.
  • Instead, insurance coverage of contraception was framed as a government subsidy for sexual activity.This framing revealed inherent social inequalities for women in the domain of sexual health.

• Sexual Behavior Since Kinsey

  • Another scientific product had a profound impact on the development of the sexual revolution: the development of oral contraception.
  • Before the pill, there was a lack of affordable and safe options for contraception, rendering unwanted pregnancy a serious risk of premarital sexual activity.
  • However, many states still outlawed the use of contraceptives in order to reflect and enforce an ethic in which sexual activity was only acceptable for reproduction.
  • In its opinion, the Supreme Court held that the government could not dictate the use of contraception by married couples because such action would be a violation of the right to marital privacy implied in the Bill of Rights.

• Demographic Transition Theory

  • Birth rates decrease due to various fertility factors such as access to contraception, increases in wages, urbanization, a reduction in subsistence agriculture, an increase in the status and education of women, a reduction in the value of children's work, an increase in parental investment in the education of children and other social changes.
  • While improvements in contraception do play a role in birth rate decline, it should be noted that contraceptives were not generally available nor widely used in the 19th century and as a result likely did not play a significant role in the decline then.
  • It is important to note that birth rate decline is caused also by a transition in values; not just because of the availability of contraceptives.

• Problems in Forecasting Population Growth

  • Birth rates may decline faster than predicted due to increased access to contraception, later ages of marriage, the growing desire of many women in such settings to seek careers outside of child rearing and domestic work, and the decreased economic "utility" of children in industrialized settings.
  • Certain government policies are making it easier and more socially acceptable to use contraception and abortion methods.
  • At the same time, other countries may roll back access to contraception, as has happened recently in Afghanistan.

• Data and Methods

  • The following chart illustrates the relationship between contraceptive use and the total fertility rate by regions of the world.
  • Increased contraceptive use is associated with lower numbers of children per woman.
  • It is not, however, education itself that causes declines in fertility but rather its association with other factors that reduce fertility: women with higher levels of education delay marriage and are more likely to abstain from marriage and / or parenthood, have improved labor market opportunities, are more likely to use contraception during intercourse, and are less likely to adopt traditional childbearing roles.
  • Additionally, delayed childbearing, probability of a child reaching adulthood, norms about ideal family sizes, and pervasiveness of contraceptives will all reduce fertility rates.

• Preventing Illness

  • For instance, intrauterine devices (IUD) are highly effective and highly cost effective contraceptives, however where universal health care is not available the initial cost may be a barrier.

• Sociology and the Social Sciences

  • Around the world, population growth rates have declined as new types of contraception have been introduced and as policies or economic circumstances discourage reproduction.

• Secularism and the Future of Religion

  • In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and sex education are the prominent issues many secularist organizations focus on.

• The Decline of the Traditional Family

  • The availability of reliable contraception along with support provided in old age by systems other than traditional familial ones has made childlessness an option for some people in developed countries.

• Sexual Behavior: Kinsey's Study

  • A mere decade after the reports were published, the first oral contraceptive was introduced and the sexual revolution began.