The FDA’s May 9, 1960 approval of oral contraception, aka “the pill”, transformed reproductive health. Women’s health advocate Margaret Sanger spearheaded and activist/philanthropist Katherine McCormick funded the R&D needed for this medical research breakthrough to improve women’s lives through “birth control.”
Margaret Sanger, a nurse, coined the term “birth control” and dedicated herself to educating women. Her own mother had 18 pregnancies in 22 years and died from ovarian cancer. In 1914, she started a newsletter, The Woman Rebel, to “advocate the prevention of conception.”
Sanger was indicted repeatedly and even arrested on obscenity charges under the Comstock Laws (1873) which defined birth control as obscene and made it illegal to send contraceptive devices or even info about it through the mail.
Flyer from benefit held on eve of Sanger’s trial for opening Brownsville Clinic. (Courtesy of Sanger Project).
Katherine McCormick heard Sanger speak in 1917 and grew convinced that women could only fully control their lives if they could control ifandwhenthey chose to bear children. She redirected her advocacy to the cause of birth control, even smuggling in diaphragms from Europe to New York at Sanger’s request.
When her husband Stanley died in 1947, Katherine inherited an estate estimated worth almost $40 million (more than $500 million today). Margaret Sanger introduced her to Gregory Pincus who was doing pioneering research on fertilization and hormones.
Katharine funneled to Dr. Pincus more than $2 million ($25 million today), nearly all of the money used to support his lab’s research and development of the contraceptive pill.
Read the National Archives Prologue Magazine storyRich, Famous, and Questionably Sane to learn how McCormick, who was blamed her husband’s inability to consummate his own marriage, became the catalyst for the sexual revolution.
Women Hold Banner at National Women’s Conference, November 1977. NARA ID 7452290.
On This Day in Herstory, August 27th 1875, Katharine Dexter McCormick, an influential philanthropist, biologist, suffragist, heiress, and funder of the first birth control pill was born, in Dexter, Michigan.
McCormick attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and graduated with a degree in biology in 1904. This is where she really found her passion for gender equality; MIT mandated that all female undergraduates wear hats adorned with feathers, McCormick refused stating that it would be a tremendous fire hazard in laboratories; her passion and relentlessness made MIT’s administration change their policies.
After her graduation McCormick became involved with the Woman’s Suffrage Movement. In 1909 she spoke at the first outdoor rally for suffrage in Massachusetts, and became vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Through her activism McCormick met Margaret Sanger in 1917. Sanger is the mother of modern birth control, and she persuaded McCormick to join the Committee of 100, a group of influential women who worked to legalize birth control.
McCormick and Sanger worked together through the 20′s on birth control issues, McCormick smuggled in and distributed more than 1,000 diaphragms from Europe to New York City. By 1947 McCormick’s mother and husband had died, leaving her inheritor to more than $45 million (more than $500 million today). She used this money to fund the work of Gregory Goodwin Pincus who was working to develop hormonal birth control. She gave him $100,000-$180,000 a year of her own money from 1951 to 1967; the FDA approved the sale of the drug in 1957, but McCormick continued to invest in Pincus as he researched ways to improve birth control.
At the age of 92 McCormick died. In her will she gave $5 million to Stanford University School of Medicine to support the education of female physicians. She also gave $5 million to Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
When you can’t use hormonal methods of birth control…
what do you use???
I currently have two friends who can’t mix hormones & contraception due to side effects, and I don’t have any real insight to offer them (Googling only gets you so far!).
Would anyone be willing to share their personal experiences (good, bad & ugly) and guidance on this?
Howdy hey, all, this one is a long time coming but I’ve finally released a new version of the in-development game The Pill!
The latest build (v0.3.0) is currently available on my Patreon while the new public build available to all you fine folks is v0.2.5.1
From the previous public version (v.0.2.0) there are a heap of changes and improvements including:
- A complete overhaul of the choices UI - A complete overhaul of how the works once you finish a storyline. - A completely new element to the story - there is now a narrator who describes occurrences/events. - 2 new endings, animations and CG pics - An updated BE pill arc.
And if you’re curious the latest Patreon only build, v0.3.0 contains: - The first arc of a new character - Trish! - 5 new endings - 6 new animations - 500+ new lines of dialogue
Finally, Belle’s story is currently in the progress of being voiced and recorded. Look for it in an upcoming version!
Just gonna take a stab in the dark and ask the females out there if they know any contraceptive pills that don’t make your boobs massive because I am not into this right now.
I don’t want the damn injection but I am more than looking forward to stopping this pill.
