Birth Control

One of the greatest achievements of medical research is considered to be birth control methods. Concerns for controlling the reproductive behavior have been present in history since the use of coitus interruptus or other natural methods such as the calendar method, the basal body charting or the temperature method, the cervical mucus, etc. Abortion itself had been described as a method of controlling child bearing. All of these methods had one major inconvenience: a low rate of success in preventing the pregnancy. This is why several other methods had been developed, with a better rate of success and higher safety, such as the condom, birth control pills, intrauterine devices, hormonal implants, surgical sterilization (vasectomy and tubal ligature), spermicides, diaphragms, etc.

Immigrants’ birth control must be discussed in relation to several issues that may have an impact both on the choice to control their own childbearing, as well as on the acceptability of the methods, such as...