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Paper short abstract

This contribution uses visual methodology to explore tensions around intrauterine device (IUD) use. I have written a zine depicting a chapter in the history of IUDs in Sweden. Illustration simplifies and strips away some details, pushes others forward and creates space for different story telling.

Paper long abstract

This contribution uses visual methodology to explore tensions around intrauterine device (IUD) use. I have written a zine depicting a chapter in the history of IUD use in Sweden. An illustrated account simplifies and strips away some details, pushes others forward, and it creates space for different story telling. Illustration also has the potential to bring the history of a contraceptive device used by many, many people back to them.

The zine focuses on the early 1960s when there were significant knowledge gaps in understanding how intrauterine devices worked. In Sweden, IUDs were banned, as earlier legislation classified IUDs as abortifacients and prohibited their use. But in the early 1960s there was excitement about using IUDs. Swedish researchers applied to run clinical trials of IUDs and IUDs were included in foreign family planning efforts, even before the technology was officially permitted in Sweden.

IUDs have been studied as “versatile technologies” – technologies that can be used for both feminist and non-feminist means (Takeshita 2012). They can be used coercively to control births on a population level, or to harm vulnerable populations. To imagine new futures involves knowing what the past has looked like and why – IUD use is not a simple story, but it does clearly show the ways in which we do not want contraceptives to be used. It also reveals that issues we struggle with today – how global power imbalances, ethnicity, class, and gender impact contraceptive accessibility – are not new dilemmas.