Family planning was the focus of discussion for the almost 100 Cosumnes River College students that attended the contraception lecture  in the Recital Hall March 12.

Students gathered for a lecture on the history of contraception and contraceptives given by human sexuality professor James Frazee, PhD., in honor of women’s history month.

“This is not a decision to be made by yourself,” Frazee said. “This should be made with a partner, contraception is about planning.”

During the lecture Frazee made clear the distinction between contraception and contraceptives.

“The lecture announced was contraceptives, now contraceptives is a limiting term only referring to the devices that were used,” Frazee said. “What I’m going to be talking about is contraception. That indicates that we can think about what we should do, what we want to do and what we can do.”

The lecture covered the history of family planning as well as discussed medical advancements being made in the field of contraceptives, including reversible surgical implants for both men and women.

Towards the end of the lecture, in between sporadic questions from the audience, Frazee outlined the many different contraceptives available to students today, ranging from surgical methods like the vasectomy to hormonal methods like birth control pills and the nuva ring.

Students like 21-year-old early childhood education major Ariel Rylander felt that the lecture was very informative.

“I’m in his human sexuality class and his lectures are always interesting,” Rylander said. “I enjoyed it because I wanted to learn more about contraception, when it comes to pregnancy a lot of people don’t know much about it.”

Rylander added that the most interesting part of the lecture, for her, was when Frazee spoke on the history of the birth control pill and how it clashed with the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on contraceptives.

The lecture didn’t fill the recital hall, but Frazee felt that the event was a huge success considering the quiet advertising and busy time slot.

“This is a public lecture in the middle of lunch time when plenty of other people had class going,” Frazee said. ”So I was pretty excited about the 100-115 people that did come.”

Frazee urged the attendees to join him for a viewing of the film “The Pill” on March 19 in room LRC-103.