One hundred years ago last Sunday, nurse Margaret Sanger opened the nation's first birth control clinic on Amboy Street in Brooklyn. For a 10-cent fee, visitors were given a pamphlet — “What Every Girl Should Know" — and a tutorial on the female reproductive system and how to use various contraceptives, according to a New York University project about Sanger's legacy.
That clinic eventually evolved into Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization that is credited with making reproductive health a priority for all and that treats millions of people in its clinics each year. Women — and men — now have access to all manner of birth control, including implantable devices and shots in addition to the pill and condoms. And the passage of the Affordable Care Act means insurers must cover it.
With Planned Parenthood in the spotlight this year as Congress and state legislatures fight over its funding, it's a good time to look at how far we've come in the past century regarding contraception. Here are four surprising things about where the United States stands on the issue today:
