The history of birth control, also known as contraception and fertility control, refers to the methods or devices that have been historically used to prevent pregnancy. Planning and provision of birth control is called family planning. In some times and cultures, abortion had none of the stigma which it has today, making birth control less important.Dr Dag Stenvoll, "Contraception, Abortion and State Socialism," http://paperroom.ipsa.org/papers/paper_5428.pdfLibor Stloukal, "Understanding the 'Abortion Culture' in Central and Eastern Europe," in From Abortion to Contraception: A Resource to Public Policies and Reproductive Behavior in Central and Eastern Europe from 1917 to the Present, ed. Henry P. David,
Ancient world Ancient Egypt Birth control and abortion are well documented in Ancient Egypt. The Ebers Papyrus from 1550 BC and the Kahun Papyrus from 1850 BC have within them some of the earliest documented descriptions of birth control, the use of honey, acacia leaves and lint to be placed in the vagina to block sperm. Another early document explicitly referring to birth control methods is the Kahun Gynecological Papyrus from about 1850 BC. It describes various contraceptive pessaries, including acacia gum, which recent research has confirmed to have spermatocidal qualities and is still used in contraceptive jellies. Other birth control methods mentioned in the papyrus include the application of gummy substances to cover the "mouth of the womb" (i.e. the cervix), a mixture of honey and sodium carbonate applied to the inside of the vagina, and a pessary made from crocodile dung. Lactation (breast-feeding) of up to three years was also used for birth control purposes in ancient Egypt.
The Book of Genesis references withdrawal, or coitus interruptus, as a method of contraception when Onan "spills his seed" (ejaculates) on the ground so as to not father a child with his deceased brother's wife Tamar.
Ancient Greece and Rome
Silphium, a species of giant fennel native to north Africa, may have been used as an oral contraceptive in ancient Greece and the ancient Near East. The plant only grew on a small strip of land near the coastal city of Cyrene (located in modern-day Libya) and all attempts to cultivate it elsewhere resulted in failure. Silphium was primarily used for culinary purposes and its use as a contraceptive is far less documented than its use as a seasoning. Accounts of silphium's contraceptive effectiveness are probably greatly exaggerated. Possibly due to its supposed effectiveness and thus desirability, by the first century AD, it had become so rare that it was worth more than its weight in silver and, by late antiquity, it was fully extinct. Asafoetida, a close relative of siliphion, was also used for its contraceptive properties. Other plants commonly used for birth control in ancient Greece include Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota), willow, date palm, pomegranate, pennyroyal, artemisia, myrrh, and rue. Some of these plants are toxic and ancient Greek documents specify safe dosages. Recent studies have confirmed the birth control properties of many of these plants, confirming for example that Queen Anne's lace has post coital anti-fertility properties. Queen Anne's lace is still used today for birth control in India.
According to Norman E. Himes, most methods of birth control used in antiquity were probably ineffective. The single most effective method of birth control known in antiquity was probably coitus interruptus. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle ( 384–322 BC) recommended applying cedar oil to the womb before intercourse. Aristotle had no knowledge of how conception worked and he probably recommended this believing that the oil's smoothness would prevent conception. In actuality, this method may have sometimes been effective because the oil may have gummed up the external os and thereby reduced the motility of the sperm, but effectiveness would have been only occasional and highly variable. A Hippocratic text On the Nature of Women recommended that a woman who did not desire to conceive a child should drink a copper salt dissolved in water, which it claimed would prevent pregnancy for a year. This method is not only ineffective, but also dangerous, as the later medical writer Soranus of Ephesus ( 98–138 AD) pointed out. Soranus attempted to list reliable methods of birth control. He took a rational approach to this, rejecting the use of superstition and amulets and instead prescribing common-sense mechanical methods such as vaginal plugs and pessaries using wool as a base covered in oils or other gummy substances. According to Himes, many of Soranus's methods were probably also ineffective.
China and India In the 7th century BC, the Chinese physician Master Tung-hsuan documented both coitus reservatus and coitus obstructus, which prevents the release of semen during intercourse. However, it is not known if these methods were used primarily as birth control methods or to preserve the man's yang. In the medieval Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao documented the "thousand of gold contraceptive prescription" for women who no longer want to bear children. This prescription, which was supposed to induce sterility, was made of oil and quicksilver heated together for one day and taken orally.
In India, Vatsyayana's classical text (2nd century AD) presented various contraceptive methods including coitus obstructus involving controlling the release of semen.
Ancient Americas Many native plants were utilized and have thus been ingrained into Native American tradition as contraceptives. The Hopi and Tewa tribes are documented to have used the Indian paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia) as a type of contraceptive. Many forms of the Lithospermum genus have been historically used by the Navajo and Shoshoni tribes. The bitter cherry plant (Prunus emarginata), corn lily (Veratrum californicum), and star-flowered lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum stellatum) were used by a variety of different tribes as a form of contraceptive or sterility inducer.
Cinnamon has been used in ancient traditional Mexican medicine as an abortifacient and contraceptive. Nahua women used parts of the plants in the Bignonia and Hameilia genera and those of the shaving brush tree (Pseudobombax ellipticum) in their medical practices as well.
Medieval and early modern period
Persia In the late 9th to early 10th century, the Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi documented coitus interruptus, preventing ejaculation and the use of pessaries to block the cervix as birth control methods. He described a number of pessaries, including elephant dung, cabbages and pitch, used alone or in combination. During the same period Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (Persian) documented the use of pessaries made of rock salt for women for whom pregnancy may be dangerous. In the early 10th century the Persian Polymath Abu Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (Persian), known in Europe as Avicenna, included a chapter on birth control in his medical encyclopedia The Canon of Medicine, listing 20 different methods of preventing conception. One such method of preventing contraception listed is otherwise identical to the ancient Egyptian method found in the Papyrus Kahun written 1,000 years earlier. However, it substitutes the ingredient of crocodile dung for that of elephant dung as he believed it to be of greater effectiveness.
South Asia Indians used a variety of birth control methods since ancient times, including a potion made of powdered palm leaf and red chalk, as well as pessaries made of honey, ghee, rock salt or the seeds of the palasa tree. A variety of birth control prescriptions, mainly made up of herbs and other plants, are listed in the 12th century Ratirahasya ("Secrets of Love") and in the 15th century Ananga Ranga ("The Stage of the God of Love").
Europe In medieval western Europe, any efforts to halt or prevent pregnancy were deemed immoral by the Catholic Church. Women of the time still used a number of birth control measures such as coitus interruptus, inserting lily root and rue into the vagina, and infanticide after birth.
Historian John M. Riddle has advanced the hypothesis that women in classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Early Modern period used herbs to control fertility. Historian Etienne van de Walle has quoted Riddle as stating that "most women" in the Middle Ages knew that certain herbs and herbal products could be taken to induce an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy and that this knowledge was primarily shared amongst women, thus affording them "more control over their lives than we thought possible". Riddle has further hypothesized that "these drugs were perfected over centuries in a female culture of which males—who were doing the writing—had only a partial and imperfect understanding" and it is this shared folk wisdom amongst women that explains the relatively static population size in the West before the 18th century, rather than the high rate of infant mortality. Several historians have taken issue with this hypothesis: Gary Ferngren has noted the circumstantial nature of Riddle's evidence and concluded that the ideas remained "unproved and unlikely," while Helen King has written that Riddle makes claims about modern pharmacology that are not supported by his source materials. Demographer Gigi Santow also takes issue with the proposition, writing that it overemphasizes the role of herbs and stating that Riddle seeks "not so much to persuade as to convert."
On December 5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull in which he recognized the existence of witches and gave full papal approval for the Inquisition to proceed "correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising" witches "according to their deserts". In the bull, which is sometimes referred to as the "Witch-Bull of 1484", the witches were explicitly accused of having "slain infants yet in the mother's womb" (abortion) and of "hindering men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving" (contraception). Famous texts that served to guide the witch hunt and instruct magistrates on how to find and convict so-called "witches" include the Malleus Maleficarum, and Jean Bodin's De la Demonomanie des Sorciers. The Malleus Maleficarum was written by the priest J. Sprenger (born in Rheinfelden, today Switzerland), who was appointed by Pope Innocent VIII as the General Inquisitor for Germany around 1475, and H. Institoris, who at the time was inquisitor for Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia and Moravia. The authors accused witches, among other things, of infanticide and having the power to steal men's penises.
Barrier methods such as the condom have been around much longer, but were seen primarily as a means of preventing sexually transmitted diseases, not pregnancy. Casanova in the 18th century was one of the first reported using "assurance caps" to prevent impregnating his mistresses. In 1909, Richard Richter developed the first intrauterine device made from silkworm gut which was further developed and marketed in Germany by Ernst Gräfenberg in the late 1920s.
19th century
Birth control became a contested political issue in Britain during the 19th century.