A book review, of a 2014 work outlining four key figures who brought The Pill to market ….
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In its 1999 millennium issue, The Economist magazine considered what were the twelve most important inventions of the past thousand years. They noted that the (just-ending) 20th Century was still too-new to evaluate, but that perhaps its most important invention was the advent of the birth-control pill— as it truly changed the lives of women around the world. I agree (although I might add an additional invention: the advent of nuclear weapons meant that we could destroy our entire world, not just a part of it).
And one recent example was the comment by your-friend-and-mine Ted Cruz, in his denial that the GOP wants to take away birth control ….. by pointing out that condoms are freely available in America …. for any man who wishes to use them. Men calling-the-shots …. that’s tellin ‘em, Ted.
Someone who came to agree with The Economist’s statement was the author Jonathan Eig— who wrote a 2014 book on the subject (recently released in paperback) entitled The Birth of the Pill: “How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution”. And while there are enough scientific accounts (with clinical language) in this book, Eig was aiming at the general interest reader: focusing on four figures who played key roles in bringing the birth-control pill to the market.
He noted that there were other figures who played a role in the 1950’s …. and with the death earlier of this year of Carl Djerassi at age 91 — the first to synthetically produce progesterone, the main ingredient of The Pill — we are even reminded of the work to this day. (Djerassi saw his work as helping control menstrual disorders at the time, not fertility).
Still, Jonathan Eig felt there were four indispensable figures to this day, and I can recommend this book to Daily Kos readers. I got it from my public library; if yours does not have it you can probably get it via interloan. Or, from your local bookstore or online.
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First, some common denominators:
* While its significance as a pregnancy inhibitor was soon recognized, five years of trials were needed to demonstrate its relative safety and effectiveness. Even then, drug companies were reluctant to market the pill, fearing boycotts of their products by religious groups and others opposed to birth control. (How things have changed, huh?)
* With patient consent regulations of today, much of the research the pioneers did would not have been possible.
* At the dawn of the 1950’s, birth control is illegal in 30 states, and the federal government has laws against it. You're not allowed to even give out information about fertility control. Condoms are available widely, so there's this great discrepancy and this great sexism involved there. Men can get this fairly crude form of birth control, but women have nothing.
* The race to get a pill to market before wind of it reaches the forces of religion and politics intervene caused corners to be cut (that nonetheless worked out).
* The island of Puerto Rico looms large in the testing phase: birth control is legal there, doctors and nurses trained on the mainland work there, poor women are eager to reduce childbirths and tend to trust drugs manufactured on the mainland.
* In another sleight-of-hand, the decision was made to initially ask for (and receive in 1957) FDA approval for menstrual disorders, yet it had a label on it that says, “Warning, this pill will likely prevent pregnancy”. As hoped, women and their doctors put two-and-two together … only later in 1960 was it approved specifically for birth control.
* Prescott Bush — the father and grandfather to presidents — served as treasurer for Planned Parenthood’s first fundraising campaign, in 1947.
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No discussion about birth control in the USA can be had without speaking of Margaret Sanger— and the book tells you quite a bit about her life. Jonathan Eig does not spare us the faults in this woman’s life (including that she had a great many affairs, had a couple of husbands and encouraged her husbands to have affairs) but — unlike our opponents — he knows that if we had not had her…. we would have had to invent her.
As the founder of Planned Parenthood, there is not enough space here to definitively outline her influence. Suffice it to say, she lived long enough not only to see her dream of a birth control pill realized, but also to live eight months past the 1965 landmark Supreme Court case of Griswold vs. Connecticut — ending state restrictions on birth control.
a young Margaret Sanger ... … and older (1879 — 1966)Margaret Sanger spent 30+ years on a quest looking for a birth control pill and being told by every scientist she approaches that no way, they wouldn't go near it. And even if they could go near it: it probably wouldn't work, anyway.
Until, that is, she arranged for a fateful meeting — most likely taking place in December, 1950 — with a scientist who told her he thought it was possible to create a pill. Fittingly, Gregory Pincus was a researcher who was seemingly born to take on such a controversial task. Says Jonathan Eig:
Pincus was fired from Harvard, in fact, and denied tenure because he was far too controversial. In the 1930s, he was not only experimenting with in-vitro fertilization, he was bragging about it to the mainstream press, which is something serious scientists weren't supposed to do. He was unable to find a job anywhere else in the world of academics.
Margaret Sanger was able to offer him $2,000 and asked if it would do (to begin with)? “The amount was ludicrous”, Pincus recalled ….. “but I at once replied, ‘Yes”.
A younger Gregory Pincus .. ..in the 50’s (1903 — 1967)While Margaret Sanger was the one who got the ball rolling, it was left to a wealthy widow (whose late husband was part of the International Harvester founder’s family) to provide the financing. Katherine McCormick was an early stalwart of the suffragette movement, had a degree from M.I.T. and knew Margaret Sanger well. Yet it was only after her husband’s 1947 death that she was now free to use her inheritance. And when Sanger told her of the work Pincus was doing, she became practically an ATM for his work in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her role was not widely known at the time, but history has shown how vitally important she was.
Katherine McCormick ~1915 … and later (1875 — 1967)In conducting his tests, Pincus was concerned about being able to test his pill on humans. And to that end, he found an able partner in Dr. John Rock - an obstetrician and gynecologist who was a devout Roman Catholic and a ground-breaking infertility specialist, who devoted much of his career to helping women with fertility problems to conceive.
Although Margaret Sanger was highly opposed to utilizing a practicing Catholic, Pincus (who had long suspected part of his rejection by academe was due to anti-Semitism) saw Rock’s Catholicism as an asset. And since progesterone could be used in treating infertility — and Rock was a highly-trusted practitioner (beloved, in fact, by many) in the field — clinical trials in Massachusetts (close to Pincus’ lab) could be held. John Rock was also held in high esteem by the FDA, and so Pincus relied upon him to argue the case for approving the new pill.
John Rock always felt that birth control was unobjectionable for the religious, and later wrote a 1963 book explaining that. Like Katherine McCormick, his role is more appreciated today than before.
Dr. John Rock in the 1950’s …and later (1890 — 1984)If you are reading this account and — especially if you are unfamiliar with this story — I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. In today’s environment, it is a wonder that something like this could happen. As noted, you can probably get it from your public library.
Interestingly, it was during the 1950’s that it happened. The late author David Halberstam noted that — while many people see the 50’s as a bland decade, and the 1960’s as an exiting time of change — many of the changes merely culminated in the 1960’s from earlier developments, as his seminal 1986 book The Fifties chronicled.
Let’s close with … what else? …. Loretta Lynn’s hit single The Pill— banned from many country radio stations, yet reaching #5 on the charts — from 1975:
x YouTube Video Now, on to Top Comments: -------------------------------------From Gentle Giant:
In the front-page story about how the GOP isn’t worried about alienating women voters re: Planned Parenthood (but worry that The Donald might pull it off - I would like to nominate AggieDemocrat's comment for its wisdom, its conciseness & its witFlagged by Glen the Plumber:
In the diary by Texas Bill who takes President Obama to task for raising the issue of gun control— he was taken-to-task by Margaret POA for his attitude.And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about our ol’ pal George Zimmerman being banned by Twitter for posting nude revenge photos of his ex … responding to the rhetorical question of whether he could get any worse, EarthquakeWeather makes a perfectly rational— yet chilling observation.Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - thanks to the intrepid mik who rescued this feature from oblivion:
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