If there were no birth control, would feminists be advocates for abstinence?

I asked a similar question last night, but no one brought up the idea of abstinence as a remedy to birth control (and abortion) never being invented.





Would the feminist claim that women should be in control of their sexual urges if they want to be equal? Just a thought... :-)If there were no birth control, would feminists be advocates for abstinence?
Well, to go off of one of your tangents, men definitely don't control their sexual urges through abstinence. It's more a supposed control of emotions over their sex life, so to be considered equal, feminist women would become more ';butch,'; I think. (Although in the business world, it's would be more commonly known as ';*****.';)





As for the abstinence: yes and no. Would withholding sex become a major factor of some feminist movement somewhere in this scenario? Yes. But feminism isn't all about sex, nor is abstinence the only alternative to birth control. Women all over the world practice a natural birth control that involves figuring out the stages of your cycle to the day and predicting when you are and are not fertile. Of course, in third world countries where the science is much more rudimentary, this isn't always effective because every woman is a little bit different.





Furthermore, I don't think abortion could ever be ';invented,'; or, inversely, ';uninvented.'; It's something that has existed, in one form or another, since the beginning of human civilization. There have always been herbs purported to prevent pregnancy or even abort a fetus in the womb, as well as extremely crude and dangerous methods of physically removing a fetus. On top of that, though, some scientists theorize that, when a woman is in her prime baby-making years (which tends to be a younger age range than, say, her prime career/family years), the body naturally aborts fetuses that it perceives to be ';defective'; in one form or another, and it often occurs before the mother is even aware that she's pregnant. Supposedly it explains why older women are more likely to have babies with genetic disorders, including Down Syndrome.





Sorry if you were looking for a more definitive answer, but that's what I've got.If there were no birth control, would feminists be advocates for abstinence?
Gazz, you are good! I should have jumped the fence a long time ago!





Seriously, abortion has been around since early Mesopotamia and so has various forms of birth control. It is not like they have just been invented recently. And frankly, in my opinion, people already repress their sexuality way too much. One should explore, indulge and rejoice in one's sexuality, not repress it.
Abstinence offers women more freedom than the pill.





I think birth control caused many women to despise the workings of their reproductive systems and caused men to lose all respect for women's reproductive systems as life creating organs.





Women use birth control and abortion to cater to men's expectations of them rather than taking pride in their ability to carry a child and treating their bodies as something worth more than allowing some man who hardly cares for her future to use








P S Char girl is the smartest woman on this board
'; Would the feminist claim that women should be in control of their sexual urges if they want to be equal? ';





I think they already do. When was the last time you saw a feminist suggesting women allow someone else be in control of their sexual urges? Just because one chooses to have sex does not mean they are not in control of their sexual urges, it just means they are not denying them. Just a thought... :-)
No. All birth control has failure rates, and abstinence does not. Not one form of ';protection'; protects against STDs 100%, but abstinence does. it always has been and always will be the safest and smartest way, but mention it as a viable option and you will get spit on.





If it was the only option, people would still crap all over it and say that it doesn't work and that it's a waste of time.
I'd still have sex, the urge doesn't go away. It's biological.


For example, it's common for a less fortunate family with say, 6 kids, to keep growing, despite the fact that it's already hard enough to put food on the table. There may be no access to birth control or it may not be affordable, but people still have sex.
Who knows? I'm sure we'd all go back tot he days of calendar fear and leaving babies in churchyards. Come to think of it, it wouldn't be a heck of a lot different would it?


I think that the thought of a time without birth control is so foreign to most of us that the magnitude of that situation eludes us. There has always been birth control in my lifetime, I can't imagine it any other way
Probably.





Although I agree with religious conservatives who want to challenge the youth to delay sexual activity for a while, I totally disagree with their message that a condom is a provision for sin. I send my Christian friends to the website below which debunks the whole thing against premarital sex in the Bible. That way they have no excuse not to support comprehensive sex education.
I asked a similar question a while ago, and almost every feminist who answered said that, if they had no access to birth control and abortion, they would choose to abstain from sex.


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;鈥?/a>





Speaks for itself, really!





I'm not against birth control, but I don't worship it either. I don't think it liberated women. We can have control over our bodies and plan our families simply by abstaining, which is much safer and more effective than any birth control!
I really dislike the name feminists as I believe men and woman have distinct roles that are related to gender. So far as being in control of our sexual urges well woman already are and have been.
If there was no birth control, you can guarantee that people would be experimenting with ways to prevent pregnancy rather than abstain from sex.
I'm sure it would depend on the feminist. But if virtually every woman was in favor of abstinence except for when they wanted to get pregnant, men wouldn't like it one bit.
I'd certainly be an advocate for making sure you knew how your cycle worked so you were less likely to get pregnant, and also taking other precautions ... that system and little else worked for me for years.
No, we'd still be advocates for women making their own choices, even if those choices were more limited.
They'd probably insist on men getting vasectomies more or something.
Yeah and not just feminists I presume.
No, they'd invent it.
Lesbians can't get pregnant so they don't need birth control : )





Damn i'm good :D





Lmao Rebecca W :p





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