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Prostitution/Adultery
Most Reforms wanted to get rid of prostitution. Many women published news papers and wrote letters trying to expose the predatory nature of a male. Many enforced premarital chastity. Many women blame males "sexual appetite" for the downfall of innocent women. Adultery was looked at as a capital crime. Many women were hanged for committed this crime -
Abortion
Many abortions were mostly preformed by women. Many poor women dread conception, they often tried to induce miscarriage, some would try jumping off table, rolling on the floor and etc. Abortions were illegal but very common, and also extremely dangerous, 1 in 5 abortions resulted in death. -
Comstock Law
The driving force behind the anti-birth control statutes was a New Yorker named Anthony Comstock. The Comstock Law was a federal act passed by congress that made the publication, distribution, and possession of medication or information about abortion or birth control illegal. If someone was found guilty they could face up to 5 years in jail with hard labor or up to a $2,000 fine. -
Women's Christian Temperance Union
The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in November of 1874. The WCTU was one of the first organizations of women devoted to social reform that also linked their faith together -
Age of Consent
"Age of consent" referred to the legal age at which a girl could consent to sexual relations and marriage.If a female had not reached the age of consent and were to have sex the man would be prosecuted. American reformers were shocked to discover that the laws of most states set the age of consent at the age of ten or twelve, and in one state, Delaware, the age of consent was only seven. Petitions were signed to raise the legal age. -
Social Hygiene Movement
The Social Hygiene Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was an attempt to control venereal disease, regulate prostitution, and spread sexual education through scientific research and through media. -
Mary Dennett
Mary Dennett was a women who worked alongside Sanger with birth-control rights. Dennett was an American women's rights activist and pioneer in the areas of birth control, sex education, and women's suffrage. She co-founded the Voluntary Parenthood League, served in the National American Women's Suffrage Association, co-founded the Twilight Sleep Association, and wrote a famous pamphlet on sex education and birth control. In 1914, Dennett met Margaret Sanger and joined Sanger in her movement. -
Margaret Sanger
Th starting force for birth control rights in the early 1990's. She was an activist for legalizing birth control and making it universally available to women. She thought the only way to challenged federal and state laws was to break them. Her goal was to bring birth control information and contraceptive devices to women and prevent wanted pregnancies. In October 1916 Sanger and two other women were arrested when police entered a birth-control clinic that Sanger had started.
