Not all that long ago, in many jurisdictions, contraceptives other than condoms were illegal to sell to ANYONE,single or married. Then the Supreme court ruled that those laws were “unconstitutional”, and not long after, ruled that laws against selling contraceptives to SINGLE people werr likewise unconstitutional. That changed America.
On the face of it, what could be wrong with legalizing contraceptives for everyone? As it turned out, there were and are problems with oral contraceptives, from a medical standpoint, and to a lesser extent, with topical contraceptives. Once they were made legal, and therefore widely and openly available, the culture changed. For eons, a woman or adolescent girl could refuse to have sex with a man or boy on the grounds that she might get pregnant, and that fact was widely accepted as a reason to refuse sex, and to remain unbedded until the gal’s wedding night. She didn’t even have to admit to having Christian morals,if she didn’t want to. With the mass marketing of contraceptives, all that changed, dramatically. In just a few years, girls went from having a right to say “no” and still have male admirers, to having to say “yes” or riskbeing dateless. “I don’t want to get pregnant” was answered by,”Why aren’t you on the Pill?” If the girl should say,”I want to save myself for marriage, I believe that is the right way for me to behave”,she was usually jeered at, and the boy would repeat the story all over the school, setting her up for a long period of social isolation, no boy wanted to be caught dating a girl whom everyone knew wouldn’t be bedded. “If you won’t got to bed with me, I’ll drop you and find another girl who ISN’T a prude”, was the battle cry, and lots of girls have felt compelled to have sex before they wanted to,just to not “lose” the guy. So, the “right” to contraception became a societal NORM to the extent that those girls and women of childbearing age who would like to have the right to refuse premarital sex are finding that it comes with a painfully high price these days. Also, finding a likewise virgin male is harder now than ever, since pregnancies can now be successfully prevented, and any fellow who wants to can sow his wild oats without fear of a harvest as long as his lovers are on the Pill.
Also, with the explosive rise in premarital and extramarital sex has come a societal preoccupation with sex and with “sexy” people and images,and it is harder all the time to AVOID them. The “right of freedom of expression” is becoming near-absolute,with regards to sex, and is disappearing , with regards to virtue and high moral standards, so the right to BELIEVE, guaranteed in the Constitution, is being eroded, and with it, the ability to maintain one’s personal morality, and to encourage morality in others.
Abortion is marketed and defended as a woman’s “right to choose”. In practice, she often does NOT choose abortion, it is FORCED upon her, by her callous boyfriend or husband, or by her parents. SOMEONE ELSE does not want to help her to raise a baby, or share her love with a baby, or is not ready for fatherhood at this time, or with this woman, so she is harshly pressured into killing her unborn baby. In one study, over 70% of the women at one abortion clinic reported that the decision that she have an abortion was made by someone ELSE. So the “right to choose” is , in practice, often NOT the WOMAN’S right, at all, but the” right” of whoever she is dependent upon for emotional support.
