A. “Contraception in Context” reading
1. How does the way that reproduction and childbearing are thought (and talked) about frame the ways that contraception is thought and talked about? Provide examples from the article.
2. How do Gillespie and Hubbard differentiate between the population control movement and the birth control movement?
3. Gillespie and Hubbard state: “To evaluate the [contraceptive] methods that are available or being developed we must…take account not only of their safety and appropriateness but also of who controls them—in short, whether they expand choices or limit them” (p. 4). Evaluate the contraceptive methods presented throughout the article in light of this statement.
B. “Searching for Something Better” reading
1. How is birth control—in the case the IUD—seen as a cost-saving measure for the federal government?
2. How does rhetoric of responsibility or irresponsibility fit with the development and distribution of contraception and how does this relate to a population control agenda? Use the example of the IUD in your discussion.
3. Discuss metaphors of violence used in the rationale for development and advertisement of contraception—here focusing on the IUD.
4. How might cost-benefit analyses surrounding the distribution of the IUD vary by race and class (see especially p. 270-271).
5. Review what happened with the Dalkon Shield.
C. “Depo-Provera: Old Concerns, New Risks” and “Quinicrine Sterilization in India: Women’s Health and Medical Ethics Still at Risk” readings
1. Discuss the cases of the development, testing, and distribution of Depo-Provera and Quinicrine. What are the similarities?
2. How are “side effects” of Depo-Provera explained through biomedicine?
3. How are Depo-Provera and Quinicrine possibly used as tools of population control?
4. Analyze the meaning of “choice” taking into consideration the examples of Depo-Provera, Quinicrine, and looking at “Searching for Something Better” article, the IUD.
D. “Racial difference in Norplant use in the United States” and “Implanon: A New and Improved Bullet” readings
1. What is Norplant? What are its known side effects? To whom is Norplant most notably distributed?
2. Discuss the structural bias hypothesis versus the life circumstances hypothesis related to contraceptive options and choices.
3. How are negative images of particular groups of women of color linked to contraceptive options available and/or recommended?
4. What is the Hyde Amendment?
5. How is Implanon similar and different to Norplant? Look at the ways it is used, who it is prescribed to, and why it is prescribed to particular groups of women.
6. Discuss the metaphor of weapons used to describe contraception such as Norplant and Implanon (as well as the IUD and Depo-Provera).
7. What does “provider-controlled contraception” mean? How does this term link to meanings of responsibility and/or irresponsibility?
E. “The Social Life of Emergency Contraception in the United States” reading
1. “New medical technologies are good to think with. Their very novelty makes them
prime subjects for debate over the meaning of medicine and science in a social and political order. [This] can reveal cultural categories, social conflicts, and the relationship between individual bodies and the body politic” (Wynn & Trussell 2006, citing Scheper-Hughes & Lock, 1987). Review the debate in the FDA over the over-the-counter (OTC) status of emergency contraception (EC) in light of this quote. Focus on the following in your discussion:
a) Women’s bodies as sites of control and symbolic of the body politic
b) The framing of “safety” by advocates and opponents of OTC EC.
c) How did the testimony of political activists differ from the “experts” (opponents or advocates) in the debate?
d) How is decision making framed by advocates and opponents of OTC EC?
e) How do definitions of pregnancy fit in here?
f) The politics of science