Intended Consequences

Starting in 1965, the federal government's role in family planning underwent a dramatic shift. From a policy of nonintervention, Republicans and Democrats actively supported state-funded programs covering artificial contraception, sterilization, and, after 1973, abortion. Donald Critchlow traces the inception, implementation, and politicization of federal involvement in birth control from the Kennedy Administration up to Bill Clinton's terms as President. The personal and the political is neatly interwoven in this story of the federal government's intervention in the most private aspect of American family life, shedding original light on the current culture wars over unwed motherhood, homosexual parenting, a woman's right to an abortion, drawing a political map of past choices and current consequences.