Answer the multiple-choice question about main idea based on the content of the paragraph below.

Question

Anti-alcohol and cigarette lobbying and a law mandating state control over women’s reproductive choices dominated the late 1800’s. Other issues in the forefront included a health and fitness campaign that advocated a diet rich in whole grain products, exercise, self-help books, filtered water, and warnings about the danger of heavy caffeine and red meat consumption. Also, the 1873 federal Comstock law made it illegal to mail birth control information and devices. This law prevented women from having free access to techniques, methods, and items enabling them to regulate the frequency and number of pregnancies. In 1914, Margaret Sanger, concerned about unwanted pregnancies which often resulted in premature death among poor women, began to distribute birth control information and devices. She was arrested and jailed many times while challenging this restrictive law on women’s reproductive choices.
Reflecting the general repressiveness of the time, six years later (1920) the 18th
Amendment was passed, making it illegal to manufacture or sell alcoholic beverages and eliminating the choice to consume alcohol legally. Reformers claimed that eliminating the evils of alcohol and tobacco would return traditional family values and lead to a prosperous Golden Era free from crime.
However, these prohibitions did not lead to a Golden Era. Instead, they produced an uncontrollable and
untaxable black market economy, increased crime, and increased the deaths of thousands of women from health complication of unwanted pregnancies.

The main idea of the passage is best expressed in the first sentence of which paragraph?

a. 1st.
b. 2nd.
c. 3rd

Answer 1

a. 1st.