The Birth Control Clinic in America: Life Within; Life Without, 1923--1972
Holz, Rosemarie Petra
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/84629
Description
Title
The Birth Control Clinic in America: Life Within; Life Without, 1923--1972
Author(s)
Holz, Rosemarie Petra
Issue Date
2002
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Leslie J. Reagan
Department of Study
History
Discipline
History
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
History, United States
Language
eng
Abstract
"My dissertation, a social and cultural history of birth control, is the first study to examine the Planned Parenthood clinic movement in its entirety---from its early days in the teens through to its modern form in the 1970s---and seeks to explain the rise and proliferation of what has become an institution common to cities and towns across the nation. In part, then, it is the story of life inside the clinic. By examining those who labored within the facility, those who procured its services, as well as what took place behind closed doors, this dissertation uncovers the evolution of family planning services and explains why the clinic movement succeeded, even if some facilities on occasion did not. Yet, it is also a story of life beyond its doors, as what transpired outside the clinic institution impacted what happened within. While drugstores, pharmaceuticals, and organized medicine contributed to the development of the clinic, so too did other historical phenomenon, including immigration and migration, feminism and civil rights, colonialism and human subject experimentation. What emerges as a result is a story of conflict and negotiation, not only over the nature of clinic work but the very meaning of birth control itself. Indeed, the phrase ""birth control"" was hardly static and immutable but rather fluid and dynamic, expanding and contracting as individuals from all walks of life seized upon it as a means of profit and charity, liberation and social control."
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