Birth Control

Birth control (a term popularized by Margaret Sanger, 1876–1966) refers to control over and decisions about the timing and number of births that a woman or couple has; it is a part of family planning and includes more than contraception.

People have used various forms of birth control throughout history, including abstinence (both short-term and, for some individuals, lifetime continence), abortion (abortifacients are common in both historical and oral sources), infanticide (disposing of unwanted infants), and surgical intervention (ranging from castration to creating a hypospadias condition in the male by making an exit for sperm and urine at the base of the penis). Forms of contraception have ranged from "natural" means, such as withdrawal or use of other orifices, to a variety of mechanical means including intrauterine devices (IUDs) and various barriers such as the condom or vaginal inserts.

Historically, however, birth control was not a general matter for public discourse. Although various medical writers described methods, some more effective than others, and theologians took conflicting stands about non-procreative sexual activities, most of the information was passed on informally among women themselves, some of it more accurate than others. Historians believe that the first really measurable efforts toward some form of fertility control, probably coitus interruptus, took place in France in the eighteenth century. Full scale debate on the issue, however, did not take place until the nineteenth century.