“Arizona’s Birth Control Movement: Providing Contraceptives to Rural and Urban Women” with Mary Melcher

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION

Today, women’s ability to control their reproduction through use of contraception is taken for granted. But this is a fairly recent phenomenon. Birth control was illegal in the U.S. until 1936. Before birth control was legalized, a lively birth control movement developed in Arizona,initiated by Margaret Sanger and volunteers in Tucson and Phoenix. Working with upper middle- class women, including Maie Heard, founder of Heard Museum, and Peggy Goldwater, wife of Barry Goldwater, Sanger publicized family planning and opened clinics. Others also provided contraceptives, including Farm Security Administration nurses who distributed birth control to the racially and ethnically diverse women working in Arizona migrant camps. In addition, a Catholic priest, Father Emmett McLoughlin, provided contraceptives in south Phoenix through St. Monica’s Clinic. The work of these varied individuals gave women greater control over their reproductive lives. This talk provides historical context related to birth control, while also exploring racial and class issues related to the topic.

This program is cohosted by Mohave Community College – Lake Havasu Branch.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Mary Melcher, public historian, completed her Ph.D. in American history at Arizona State University in 1994, with fields in the twentieth century, women’s history, and the West. Dr. Melcher has worked as a curator in various museums and as a public history consultant. She was the lead historian for the Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail, a public history project combining women’s history with interpretation of historic sites. Dr. Melcher has conducted over 150 oral histories and published numerous articles in historical journals. She has a strong interest in women’s history in relation to reproduction. In 2012, she published Pregnancy, Motherhood and Choice in Twentieth Century Arizona with the University of Arizona Press.