The linkage of this issue with contraception is instructive, though. Part of the underlying moral fervor here is the idea that sex outside of marriage and for purposes other than procreation is a sin, and that women who engage in it get what they deserve. There is a punitive edge to extreme fundamentalist attitudes towards sex. We see it in its unvarnished fury in Islamic laws where rape victims in cities are stoned "because they could have called out," but all religious taboos about sex are rooted in the rivalry between the consuming passion of sexuality and the consuming passion of God -- it's a difference of degree, not kind. It's no wonder sex is feared, scorned, and attacked by extreme fundamentalists. It's the competition.
There's a good sociological reason, too. Sexuality in historical male-dominated cultures is extremely destabilizing. It has to be controlled or everything from property rights to succession lines are threatened. Scriptures were laid down in part as legal codes to keep these societies functioning. Since women were regarded as possessions, first of their fathers and then of their husbands, they became regulated just like slaves or grain. When women "became" people the logical thing to do was make them the decision-makers over their own sexuality. Religion needs a Women's Reformation.