I was talking to my mother the other day and she went off on a whole rant about the past about her never wanting children etc etc . Then she got on about a bit of history id never really thought about, the arrival of the pill just after i was born in the 60s . My mother being a married nurse went to her GP to ask about it and was told she must attend with her husband to discuss this and that he would have to sign to give his permission and that it would be very unlikely that he would agree because she had only given him a daughter. She achieved him going and signing by simply refusing him sex until he agreed.
Times moved on and i went to the GP with glandular fever as a teen and came out with the contraceptive pill because i had a tiny love bite aka hickey , i wasnt doing anything sexual but our GP wanted the world on the pill before you did .
These days its order your abortion pills online , much like ordering flea treatment for a dog . So where do we go next ?
The way things are going I dread to think.
ReplyDeleteBriony
My mother needed to have an ovary out or she would die, back in the 1970s. She was in the middle of a really nasty divorce from my father. They still made her get his signature to permit it.
ReplyDeleteAnd when she got married and asked for contraception from the GP, partly because she was stupidly anaemic and pregnancy would be life threatening, she had to fight for that as well. The GP told her to abstain - after 6 months of marriage!
I don't want to go back to that. I don't want fingers pointing and counting the days between marriage and christening. So many people really suffered. But the pendulum has to swing back a little, surely.
I remember those days, I had to have my hubby’s consent in writing to have a coil fitted at the family planning clinic
ReplyDeleteMy sister told me that when she got married in 1966 she had to take a letter from the vicar confirming that the wedding was booked before the family planning clinic would see her.
ReplyDeleteI remember my cousin having five children befor she was thirty and wanting to be sterilised , she was told she had to get her husband's permission, they did not have a stable relationship he was in and out of prison and of course he refused.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I live in an age where my daughter has control of her own destiny and body .
Thanks Kate for your response to my arthritis post. You are so right, I think it could well be stress, things are driving me up the wall. Tom is getting worse and worse and nobody knows what it's like living with a terminal partner unless they have been through it. I know you have a lot to cope with as well, thus your comment.
ReplyDeleteSome times I'd like to pack a bag and walk out.
I know it will come to an end but wow, its so hard.
My kids say, just go and sit in the garden or go upstairs but of course you still have to come back and deal with it all.
I only write this to you as I know that you know what I'm talking about.
thanks for reading.
Briony
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