Abortion and Contraception in the Middle Ages

From Scientific American:

Today, conversations around abortion in modern Christianity tend to take as a given the longstanding moral, religious and legal prohibition of the practice. Stereotypes of medical knowledge in the ancient and medieval worlds sustain the misguided notion that abortive and contraceptive pharmaceuticals and surgeries could not have existed in the pre-modern past.

This could not be further from the truth.

While official legal and religious opinions condemned the practice, often citing the health of women, a wealth of medical treatises produced by and for wealthy Christian women across the Middle Ages betray a radically different history—one in which women had a host of pharmaceutical contraceptives, various practices for inducing miscarriages, and surgical procedures for the termination of pregnancies. When it came to saving a woman’s life, Christian physicians unhesitatingly recommended these procedures.

read more here @ Scientific American

Birth Control and Abortion in the Middle Ages

The use of birth control and abortion have a long history, and a long history of being contentious. The idea that pregnancies can be prevented or stopped has raised ethical and moral issues, and, like today, in the Middle Ages you will find many opinions about what should or shouldn’t be done. However, the medieval period might be unique in that it is perhaps the only time when you can read the same author in one work condemning the use of birth control and in another giving directions on how to use it.

In the end, much of the knowledge about birth control practices in the Middle Ages is lost to history – these were issues that women had to deal with on their own, and they could usually only turn to other women for help and guidance. Some could try a medical treatment that had limited chances of success, but many would have realized that an unwanted pregnancy was something that had to be managed and/or hidden. The fate of children born in this way varied – some might have been placed in the care of another family or given to a monastery, but others might also be killed and disposed of. It may have been that in the Middle Ages the most dangerous time for an unwanted child was just after birth.

read entire article here @ Medievalist 

read also "Abortion in the Middle Ages c500 - 900" by Zubin Mistry

Helena Wright and The Sex Factor In Marriage

Helena Rosa Wright

From a rather interesting article by Paul Spicer at the Mail Online with the headline of "Desperate wives and the man known as Derek who fathered 500 children with women whose war hero husbands were too shell-shocked to make love" :

These days there are sophisticated and scientific solutions to the dismal problem of childlessness — IVF, Viagra and well-established egg and sperm donor services. We think of these as recent advantages and give thanks for the modern age.

But what only very few people are aware of is that long before sperm donation was practically or ethically possible, in the early 20th century a secret sperm donation service existed for those women most in need.

Helena Wright was a renowned doctor, best-selling author, campaigner and educator who overcame the establishment to pioneer contraceptive medicine in England and throughout the world. Kind, intelligent, funny and attractive, Helena had a way with words and a devoted set of friends. She adored men and spent her life helping women.

She had a great hit in America and Europe with a book called The Sex Factor In Marriage, which financed her innovative medical practice. She opened two London clinics: one for very privileged women in Knightsbridge, one for the poor in Notting Hill.

And it was from these offices that she undertook perhaps her greatest work: to assist hundreds of women whose husbands had returned from World War I unable to father children.

And this from the Spectator with its headline "A secret sperm donor service in post-first world war London":

Between 1914 and 1918 one million Englishmen were killed in France and Belgium. Thousands more were wounded, gassed or shellshocked in the trenches. The appalling losses of the war left many women widowed and led to a shortage of potential husbands, a gender imbalance compounded by the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. They were known as ‘the mateless multitude’.

Among the men lucky enough to return home to wives after the war, many were un-able to perform sexually, whether because of direct injury or shellshock — what we’d call post-traumatic stress disorder. It was a tremendously delicate subject — witness D.H. Lawrence’s decision to make Clifford Chatterley ‘only half a man’, deprived of his virility by war; this aspect of the novel was considered to be the cruel breaking of a taboo.

No wonder, then, that by 1918 Helena Wright had many hundreds of women on her books who had confided to her that they needed help. These women loved their husbands and would never have left them, but they also craved children. What they needed was a sperm donor, before such a thing existed.

More on Helen Wright:

Helena Wright on wikipedia

Helena Rosa Wright on the Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Further Reading:

"Freedom to choose: the life and work of Dr. Helena Wright, pioneer of contraception" by Dr Barbara Evans

Oral Contraception: a History of Social Reform, Empowerment and Health Concern

The article below was written by Matt Phillips and submitted to Women of History.  Issues concerning fertility and childbirth are important to all women, and the advances made over time should not be taken lightly.

Many thanks to Matt for his most welcome contribution.

Despite its relatively short history, oral contraception has had a tremendous impact on numerous aspects of modern society. However, its role in recent movements that won women legal equality stands out more than any other outcome. Nevertheless, this modern method of birth control, which is the most popular today, represents just one in a long succession of contraceptive devices that enable women to enjoy physical intimacy while decreasing the risk of pregnancy.

One of the most striking aspects of birth control is the history it has. Although many tend to view contraception as a fairly modern development, historians point out that individuals attempted to control family size in Mesopotamian and early Egyptian times. However, these methods were generally lacking in safety and sophistication, involving infanticide or the use of questionable barrier mixtures that sometimes contained materials like honey or animal excrement. Prolonged lactation and spermicidal chemicals were also used in ancient societies to prevent pregnancy. The ancient Chinese even produced a chemical women could ingest to produce sterility.

However, historically recent developments show social motives behind the use of contraception, while past fertility control generally centered on practical issues like the economic strain another child would bring. During the 19th century in the United States, women’s medical care was passed from midwives to male doctors. At that time, because of the social, economic and religious climate, few male doctors were willing to sanction the use of contraception and give them that power, an illustration of the general opinion regarding women’s rights at the time. Although the use of condoms gained acceptance and popularity after WWI, it wasn’t until February 15, 1961 that women gained full control over their fertility, with the FDA approval of Enovid, an oral contraceptive, for public contraceptive use.

The popularity of this drug increased rapidly after its introduction as it gave women more control of their fertility than they ever had before. Its introduction also coincided with the great social restructuring that was occurring at the time. Many women looked to these pills as a way to advance both socially and economically. Indeed, after the introduction of oral contraception, female college attendance and graduation saw a sharp rise. Its use signified more than just a fertility tool, but a complete reevaluation of women’s role in the workplace as well. Now that women could delay pregnancy indefinitely, long-term career goals became the focus of individuals that might have previously settled for early marriage and economic reliance on their spouse.

However, social and economic changes were not the only trends seen with these drugs. Since their introduction, cancer cases among U.S. women have also seen a jump. Although doctors now generally agree today’s forms of oral contraception, which contain far lower hormone doses, do not significantly increase the risk of cancer, other serious side effects have been seen. Specifically, the hormonal ingredient, estrogen, acts as a blood coagulator, leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular complications, among other dangers. One recent Yaz lawsuit even involves a woman who developed blood clots in her lungs after correctly using this particular product.

While modern oral contraception has empowered women with independent, discretionary control over their fertility, it has also been blamed for several direct health impacts, as well as indirect social consequences. Some opponents of the medication fear that this drug has led to a rise in sexually transmitted disease spread by encouraging physical intimacy and removing the fear of pregnancy. Despite the social strides women have made since using this contraceptive tool, critics continue to voice their opposition loudly, much like past opponents of female fertility control who denounced these practices on moral, economic and social grounds.

Secret Women's Business

Wonderful article by Eliza Knight @ Seduced by History:

Digging into the Mystery of the Hystery of Contraceptives and the Curse of Eve
- contraceptives, female monthly cycle and all that goes with it

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