Fødselskontroll, barnehelse og kvinners rettigheter og plikter

Abstract

Exploring Norwegian birth control and child health institutions, this article discusses the extent to which birth control was conceived as a right, embedded in health citizenship, or a practice not to be endorsed. Internationally, several initiatives appeared for birth control as a right for every free citizen in the early 1900s. Following the lead from radical sexual reform movements in Europe, such initiatives also included means to protect children’s health. Later on, birth controllers introduced perspectives with both social hygienic and eugenic overtones. At the same time, private and public initiatives were taken to reduce infant mortality by establishing child health clinics, often according to French ideals. They were not much interested in including information and advice on contraception. It is often claimed that child health clinics were the product of female philanthropy, but investigating both birth control and child health institutions, it becomes obvious that others were engaged in the field, and that the state supported their establishment and running. In addition, the parliament supported institutions for birth control since the late 1930s. There was tension between the radical feminists and working-class women on the one side, and the larger philanthropic women’s organizations on the other, but the 1972 Act on Child Health Clinics brought together institutions for birth control and child health.