What a weekend! I also ventured out to Buckingham Palace during a feminist tour of London. On Saturday, I ventured out to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It was SO good! I am a fan of some musicals, and this one blew me away. Theatre is a big deal in London, so I am glad I got to experience it in all of its glory. Then, on Sunday, I decided to go get a tattoo to represent my summer of circumnavigation. Am I the first scholar to do this? I got a small sketch of the Earth with a plane circling it and dots connecting the travel. I love it, and I thought passport stamps were just not enough to remember this trip. 🙂
To better understand the culture surrounding birth control, I pay attention to advertisements and marketing toward women as well. I take the Underground/Overground train public transportation every day, but I haven’t seen many ads directly related to my topic. I have noticed a few pre-natal vitamins and a couple about stopping gender-based violence and sexual harassment. However, one of my favorite reality shows, Love Island UK (it is so much better watching it here) had a commercial for Hana, a no-prescription birth control pill. I was shocked when I saw it, but it is smart advertising. The show is primarily geared toward young people in the UK, and it features love connections in various forms, so they knew what they were doing. I decided I was going to go pick up a box of Hana if it was as easy as the commercial made it seem. Spoiler alert: it was! I went to Boots, the large pharmacy chain, and I asked a pharmacist for Hana. They asked me a few basic questions like have I been on a daily oral contraceptive before, basic medical information, and I got it wrapped up to go. I saw signs that I could have submitted a basic questionnaire online instead of in-store which would have made it even easier! The one-month box of Hana was $10.62 USD or a 3-month supply is available for $23 USD which is pretty affordable. This means someone could use this 99% effective pill for one year and spend about $92 USD total. For comparison purposes, Errin, a pill similar to Hana, in America requires a prescription from a doctor, so the appointment costs will vary depending on insurance status. Then, the pill itself costs on average $37 for a 1-month supply based on GoodRx price comparisons. This means someone could spend as much as $444 per year on birth control pills alone depending on their insurance status. The entire process makes birth control considerably more inaccessible when adding in the need for a prescription and outrageous, unregulated costs on medications that force a person to shop around and choose an option based on their budget and access, not the best choice for their health.
Today, I spent the day at the Wellcome Library to get into some of the archival components of research again. Because of the connections with Ireland, there was also a lot of material about their history of birth control that will strengthen my overall research report. I took copious notes, but here are some highlights:
- There was an act in the 1930s throughout Ireland that controlled the creation and distribution of materials related to sexual health education. Those in favor of censorship would frequently chant “death rather than knowledge” to show that they wanted to control the access to information and potential options for those in need.
- There were only two forms of approved “birth control” according to the Roman Catholic Church during the 1930s and before:
- Safe Period – Engaging in sexual activity 7 days before menstruation occurs was okay because they thought people were infertile during this time.
- Coitus Reservatus – It was sinless to engage in sexual activity as long as the partner avoids emission. However, Marie Stopes noted that coitus interruptus, withdrawal before emission, was considered a sinful activity. This does not make much sense, and it seemed silly to Stopes to draw this distinction.
- Language played a significant role in the movement. It is unclear who specifically started it, but the opponents of birth control started calling it “birth prevention” and “control of conception” to increase negative connotations.
- Opponents of contraceptives began to conflate abortion and birth control causing more negative responses to birth control methods. This one stood out to me because this issue still occurs today. Many people believe that emergency contraception (like Plan B) is abortion pills or struggle with distinguishing the two when it comes to choices and information. This even can occur in the research field at times. There is a lot of sexual health research related to the legalization of abortion or procedures related to it, and birth control is somewhat tossed into the mix. Although the two are intertwined, they are separate and each complicated in their own right.
I have only a few more days left in London, but I have been impressed with all of the archival research and seeing how easy the process of obtaining some methods is here.
