Date of Award
2010
Degree Name
History
College
College of Liberal Arts
Type of Degree
M.A.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Kevin Barksdale
Second Advisor
Kat Williams
Third Advisor
Greta Rensenbrink
Abstract
Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service have been the focus of intense scholarly effort over the last twenty years. Scholarship on Mary Breckinridge has centered on her healthcare reform work in Appalachia and its effects on the local residents and culture. This thesis examines the oral contraceptive trial that the FNS performed in Leslie County in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although Breckinridge and the FNS maintained a restrictive contraceptive stance, they paradoxically permitted the contraceptive trial to be conducted on their patients in Leslie County. The decision to participate in the contraceptive trial resulted from a complex interaction of politics, personal relationships, prior beliefs, and pressure from outside forces. These influences combined to lead Mary Breckinridge to a decision that would have been unimaginable earlier in her career.
Subject
Oral contraceptives
Subject
Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.
Subject
Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Dana Allen, ""A Cage of Ovulating Females" : Mary Breckinridge and the Politics of Contraception in Rural Appalachia" (2010). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 97.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/97
