. In the late 1980's the court case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services upheld Missouri law that life begins at conception. The ruling prohibited the use of public funds and facilities for abortions, except to save the life of the mother. After Webster "they suddenly realized how tenuous their rights were and how seriously they must fight for them," (Evans 94). But the populations that these restrictions target the poor, have very little power, influence, and opportunity to fight for their reproductive rights. They are also the ones who need to depend on reproductive rights such as abortion and birth control to maintain some sense of economic stability. The reproductive rights of poor, minority women have never been a high concern of the US Government. They have targeted this population in contradicting ways of forcing birth control, then later giving very little support for birth control. According to The New Our Bodies, Ourselves: a Book by Women, for Women, the population control establishment (i.e., US Government agencies such as Planned Parenthood) has dominated the development and distribution of contraception. Since the 1950's "these organizations typically have been more interested in limiting the size of certain groups, especially poor and minority populations, than in helping individual women control their fertility," (Simon and Schuster INC. 259). In many contexts, the birth control movement was created with racist intentions (Davis 214). But during the times of Griswold and Roe poor women also benefited from the courts' changing attitudes. With the New Deal and the Great Society programs of the 1960's , families could benefit from programs such as food stamps and Aid for Dependent Children. Because of these programs many women, especially minority women were able to move from poverty roles to working and middle class status (Jarvis 162). According to Jarvis many found:"The greater control women gained over their reproduc...
