Sex Education: History Of Contraception, Sterilisation & Experiments Without Consent

Sex is a taboo and unexplored topic even in the most basic sex education classes that happen in limited Indian schools. While there is a lot of information one can get from the internet, there are still things that no one will tell you about.

Sex is about pleasure, but a major part of also revolves around conception and contraception. The topic has a history in deep dark webs that no one likes to explore and talk about. Did you know that birth control pills were tested without consent?

Scroll down to read more such facts about facts related to sex and contraception.

Pride Was Actually A Riot

The Pride movement that we talk in-depth about today was historically a riot. What we know and strive for every day is to make our society more inclusive. We want it to respect every individual despite the sexuality spectrum they identify with.

However, Pride was actually a riot started by transgender women who threw bricks at Stonewall, USA. According to Transgender Law Center, black trans femmes and trans women experience disproportionately higher rates of police violence, housing insecurity and unemployment due to discrimination based on their identified gender and race.

Forced Sterilisation

According to Texas Woman’s University paper - Autonomy Revoked: The Forced Sterilisation of Women of Colour in 20th Century America, the Eugenics Movement and racist beliefs led to the involuntary sterilisation of women of colour in the United States of America, and it continued in many states until the 1970s.

According to a BBC report, about 6.2 million Indian men were sterilised in a year during the 1975 emergency. It was described as the ‘gruesome campaign’ to sterilise poor men. After the 1970s, the focus of family planning shifted to women.

Between 2013 and 2014, 4 million sterilisation surgeries took place in India. Of those, less than 100,000 were performed on men. There were reports of botched surgeries from 2009 to 2012. There have been reports that serve as evidence for the deaths of women in China due to forced sterilisation in the 1980s.

Gynaecological Treatments Tested On Enslaved People

Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey are the three names that people remember when they talk about Black enslaved people. These three women were the ones on whom gynaecological treatments were experimented without their consent. The so-called ‘Father of modern gynaecology’ did not even give them anaesthesia.

In 1950, a drug called thalidomide was prescribed as a sedative to pregnant women complaining about morning sickness in Western Europe. As a result of it, 12,000 babies were born with deformities because the inaccurately marketed drug affected the uterus.

Cervical Cancer Vaccines Were Developed By Studying A Live Tissue Of A Woman Who Was Never Asked

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According to the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she was being treated for cervical cancer when the surgeons snipped a sample of the tumour and gave it to the research team without her permission.

Hers were the first cells that scientists were able to study in the live state, leading to the development of vaccines, gene mapping, cloning and medical breakthroughs. It was only 25 years later that the family members came to know about it because the researchers wanted to map their DNA with hers.

The First Doctor To Advocate For Masturbation Was A Woman

This one is an interesting fact. Did you know the first person who ever advocated for masturbation was a black woman named Dr Joycelyn Elders? Bill Clinton appointed her as a Surgeon General in 1993. She was fired for suggesting the inclusion of self-pleasure in the sex education curriculum.

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Birth Control Was Tested On Poor Haitian And Puerto Rican People Without Consent

People with ovaries all over the world are thankful for the development of contraceptive pills. However, not many know that these were tested on poor Puerto Rican and Haitian people without their consent.

Since these places had limited to no laws and regulations over the rising population, banning birth control, policies over sterilisation and poverty rates, the people here served as guinea pigs for researchers. It was also the primary reason why countless side effects and three known deaths were ignored.

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These medical advancements may have helped millions but they were only possible because of the exploitation of oppressed members of society. Historically marginalised people gained their rights and freedom after protests and riots.. Even in these spaces, when we talk about biases, class, caste, race,and gender it can be observed that society has always put women (of colour or queer identities) on the stake. Healthcare as we know it today wouldn't exist with their sacrifice. While many women have bodily autonomy, a vast number are yet struggling to enjoy these hard earned freedoms and rights over their bodies even today.

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