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{"id":18845,"date":"2020-03-19T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=18845"},"modified":"2021-07-23T13:22:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T17:22:44","slug":"the-contraceptive-pill-up-for-debate-in-1969-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2020\/03\/19\/the-contraceptive-pill-up-for-debate-in-1969-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"The Contraceptive Pill: Up for Debate in 1969 and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Donna J. Drucker<\/em> ~<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18848\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18848\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"18848\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2020\/03\/19\/the-contraceptive-pill-up-for-debate-in-1969-and-beyond\/enovid_o3224_01\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?fit=1600%2C1067&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1600,1067\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Enovid_o3224_01\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>Enovid-E packet box (G. D. Searle), July 1964<br \/>\nCourtesy Museum of Contraception and Abortion, Vienna, Austria <\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?fit=840%2C560&ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18848\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"A pink cardboard package. \" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?resize=840%2C560&ssl=1 840w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_01.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18848\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enovid-E packet box (G. D. Searle), July 1964<br \/><em>Courtesy Museum of Contraception and Abortion, Vienna, Austria<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>G.D. Searle\u2019s Enovid pill came on the market for married women in June 1960 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it for contraceptive use. It was available only with a doctor\u2019s prescription, and the FDA initially limited use to two years. As more and more women began to take it, it came under scrutiny by physicians, pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, and non-profit health organizations. By 1969, it was clear that the pill\u2019s combination of estrogen and progestin harmed some users, and each of these entities considered what steps to take next.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those considerations were made public through film. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) produced a series of nine educational films in 1969\u20131970 called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2018\/07\/26\/revealing-data-concepts-and-controversies-in-modern-medicine-1969-70\">Concepts and Controversies in Modern Medicine<\/a>.\u201d One of the topics that producers chose was the pill. Exploring the content and context of this film illustrates how information about the pill was publicly presented\u2014and the reasons why the U.S. feminist health movement organized and pushed for greater transparency in sexual and reproductive information not long afterward.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Oral Contraceptives (USPHS, 1969)\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CCxy7TTXRgw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/resource.nlm.nih.gov\/8900152A\">half-hour-long film<\/a> depicts three male physicians, all employed at elite East Coast universities, discussing the pros and cons of the pill from their specialist perspectives. Dr. Celso-Ram\u00f3n Garc\u00eda approached the pill from an obstetrician-gynecologist\u2019s viewpoint, Dr. Louis Lasagna addressed it from a pharmacological angle, and Dr. Sheldon Segal, who directed the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Population Council, served as moderator but interjected his own views from time to time. The speakers seemed to address fellow physicians or scientists and not potential or actual pill users.<\/p>\n<p>Garc\u00eda opened with a statement that the pill contributed to the health of individuals despite any disadvantages, and that any metabolic alterations were reversible when the patient discontinued use. He disdained contraceptives such as diaphragms or condoms that did not provide the same level of effectiveness as the pill, as \u201cwhen a woman comes to me, she does not want to be half-safe.\u201d Lasagna pointed out that since oral contraceptives affected every cell in the body, the pill was more like \u201cbuckshot\u201d than \u201ca magic bullet\u201d when it came to preventing pregnancy. He highlighted known side effects of the pill, including decreased liver function, higher risk of blood clots and deep vein thrombosis, and increased incidences of depression, migraines, and breast cancer. He countered Garc\u00eda, arguing that \u201cI don\u2019t think all women want 100 percent protection\u201d against pregnancy. Many women accepted the lower effectiveness rate of the diaphragm or condom, he thought, because they wanted to have children in the future but were not committed to a specific plan of child spacing. Their opinions on women\u2019s certainty regarding the possibility of future pregnancy clearly influenced their positions on contraceptive methods.<\/p>\n<p>Even though these physicians disagreed about how to balance contraceptive side effects and effectiveness with women\u2019s desire for pregnancy, they were certain of their medical authority. Segal cautioned that the pill should never be designated as an over-the-counter medication, should remain part of the \u201cphysician\u2019s armamentarium\u201d of medications, and should always be taken under medical guidance. However, none of them advocated that patients should inform themselves of the risks and benefits of a medication, and at the time, medications had no patient insert detailing usage instructions or side effects.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18849\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18849\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"18849\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2020\/03\/19\/the-contraceptive-pill-up-for-debate-in-1969-and-beyond\/enovid_o3224_02\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?fit=1600%2C1067&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1600,1067\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Enovid_o3224_02\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>Enovid-E packet instructions (G. D. Searle), July 1964<br \/>\n Courtesy Museum of Contraception and Abortion, Vienna, Austria<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?fit=840%2C560&ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18849\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"An open cardboard package with a blister pack of pills and directions and tracking chart printed on the inside.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?resize=840%2C560&ssl=1 840w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Enovid_o3224_02.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18849\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enovid-E packet instructions (G. D. Searle), July 1964<br \/><em>Courtesy Museum of Contraception and Abortion, Vienna, Austria<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Not long after this film was produced, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/forallthepeople\/exhibition4.html\">U.S. women\u2019s frustration<\/a> at that situation rose to a boiling point. To take one example, a women\u2019s group in Boston gathered sexual and contraceptive information and mimeographed a booklet called <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ourbodiesourselves.org\/cms\/assets\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Women-and-Their-Bodies-1970.pdf\">Women and Their Bodies<\/a><\/em> in 1970. The high demand for this publication led to commercial reprintings and translations of the information under the title <em>Our Bodies, Ourselves<\/em>. To take another, the Senate held hearings in January 1970 about the pill\u2019s potential harm. The all-male panel of witnesses so outraged members of D.C. Women\u2019s Liberation that they <a href=\"https:\/\/nwhn.org\/pill-hearings\">disrupted the hearings<\/a>. The pill hearings eventually led to the FDA requirement that information inserts be included in all medications, not just contraceptives. The hearings also energized the organization of a national feminist health movement.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, this film marks a specific moment in the history of medical information. These physicians put forward opinions in a formal, public setting just before second-wave feminism and the U.S. feminist health movement changed the way that medical information was available to the lay public. After 1970, medical information would no longer only be filtered through a physician\u2019s expertise. Laypeople also demanded and increasingly accessed information about drugs and their side effects so that they could make more informed decisions about their own health care.<\/p>\n<p><em>For further reading, see Elaine Tyler May,<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/nlmcatalog\/101582749\">America and the Pill<\/a> <em>(New York, 2010) and Elizabeth Siegel Watkins, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/nlmcatalog\/100884321\">On the Pill<\/a><em> (Baltimore, 1998).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Drucker_1_255x0.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"17914\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2019\/12\/05\/contraceptive-knowledge-in-the-mid-19th-century-united-states\/drucker_1_255x0\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Drucker_1_255x0.png?fit=255%2C170&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"255,170\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Donna J. Drucker\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Drucker_1_255x0.png?fit=255%2C170&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Drucker_1_255x0.png?fit=255%2C170&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-17914\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Drucker_1_255x0.png?resize=150%2C100&ssl=1\" alt=\"An informal portrait of Donna Drucker\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/em><em>Dr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interkulturelle-kompetenz.tu-darmstadt.de\/team_zikk\/kontaktliste_details_12480.de.jsp\">Donna J. Drucker<\/a> is the author of\u00a0 The Classification of Sex: Alfred Kinsey and the Organization of Knowledge (Pittsburgh, 2014) and The Machines of Sex Research: Technology and the Politics of Identity, 1945\u20131985 (Springer, 2014). Her book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/nlmcatalog\/?term=101748951\">Contraception: A Concise History<\/a> is forthcoming from MIT Press in April 2020. She tweets from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/histofsex\">@histofsex<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Donna J. Drucker ~ G.D. Searle\u2019s Enovid pill came on the market for married women in June 1960 when<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":18853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,1359464,51014],"tags":[6722,678875809,6200,35350,524,97077],"class_list":["post-18845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-films-videos","category-guests","tag-activism","tag-contraception","tag-drugs","tag-fda","tag-film","tag-womens-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/8900152A_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-4TX","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18845"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21867,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18845\/revisions\/21867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |