Editing Coitus interruptus (section)

==History==
Perhaps the oldest description of the use of the withdrawal method to avoid pregnancy is the story of [[Onan]] in the [[Torah]] and the [[Bible]].<ref>{{Bibleverse|Genesis|38:8-10}}</ref>  This text is believed to have been written over 2,500 years ago.<ref>{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Cecil |name-list-style=vanc |author-link=Cecil Adams |title=Who wrote the Bible? (Part 1) |work=The Straight Dope |publisher=Creative Loafing Media, Inc. |date=2002-01-07 |url= http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1985/who-wrote-the-bible-part-1 |access-date=2009-07-24 |archive-date=2009-03-02 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090302103830/http://straightdope.com/columns/read/1985/who-wrote-the-bible-part-1 |url-status=live }}</ref>  Societies in the ancient civilizations of [[Ancient Greece|Greece]] and [[Roman Empire|Rome]] preferred small families and are known to have practiced a variety of birth control methods.<ref name="collier"/>{{rp|12,16–17}}  There are references that have led historians to believe withdrawal was sometimes used as birth control.<ref name="eobc">{{cite book | last = Bullough | first = Vern L. | name-list-style = vanc |title=Encyclopedia of birth control |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif |year=2001 |pages=74&ndash;75 |isbn=978-1-57607-181-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuX-MGTZnJoC&pg=PA74 |access-date=2009-07-24}}</ref>  However, these societies viewed birth control as a woman's responsibility, and the only well-documented contraception methods were female-controlled devices (both possibly effective, such as [[pessary|pessaries]], and ineffective, such as [[amulet]]s).<ref name="collier">{{cite book | first=Aine | last=Collier | name-list-style = vanc | year=2007 | title=The Humble Little Condom: A History | publisher=Prometheus Books | location=Amherst, NY | isbn=978-1-59102-556-6}}</ref>{{rp|17,23}}

After the [[decline of the Roman Empire]] in the 5th century AD, contraceptive practices fell out of use in Europe; the use of contraceptive pessaries, for example, is not documented again until the 15th century. If withdrawal was used during the Roman Empire, knowledge of the art may have been lost during its decline.<ref name="collier"/>{{rp|33,42}}

From the 18th century until the development of modern methods, withdrawal was one of the most popular methods of birth-control practised globally.<ref name="eobc"/>