Malcolm Potts: The Pill — A Modern Philosopher's Stone
[Malcolm Potts, a British obstetrician, is a UC Berkeley professor and has published extensively on contraception.]
Medieval alchemists, and more recently Harry Potter, spent time seeking the Philosopher's Stone. It was thought to be the elixir of life, bestowing long life and perhaps even immortality. Fifty years ago this month, a genuine philosopher's stone was discovered — only it was a small, white, circular tablet called Enovid, the first oral contraceptive.
I knew the biologists who developed "the pill" and the doctors who tested it. In the 1960s, as a young obstetrician in Britain, I began prescribing oral contraceptives. I saw how they gave women a freedom they'd never known. For the first time in history, women could choose if and when to have a child with relative ease. No uncertain rhythm method, no embarrassing interruption of lovemaking to put on a condom. Just a highly effective, easy-to-use method....
So why does the pill continue to have a bad image? Contraception on the whole challenges strong patriarchal traditions. It took Japan 40 years to register the pill but only six months to approve Viagra. John Rock, the obstetrician who conducted the first trials of the pill in Boston, was a devout Catholic who went to Mass every day. He argued that the pill was natural because it imitated pregnancy and breastfeeding, and most people expected the Vatican to bless the new method as licit for Catholics. Instead, in 1968, Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae condemning the pill. Rock and millions of Catholics stopped going to Mass, but popes up to and including Pope Benedict XVI have continued to tell Catholic women not to use birth-control pills.
Finally, the pill is misunderstood because it has remained a prescription drug. There is no reason why women need pelvic examinations before being prescribed an oral contraception. Scientifically, there is no reason not to sell it over the counter. It is safer than aspirin. Off-patent oral contraceptive pills, which are the ones we know the most about and which I would give my loved ones, cost less than 20 cents a pack to manufacture. The pill remains on prescription for reasons of pharmaceutical companies' profit rather than for the welfare of women. Not until the pill is on sale next to Extra Strength Tylenol will women believe how safe it really is....
Read entire article at LA Times
Medieval alchemists, and more recently Harry Potter, spent time seeking the Philosopher's Stone. It was thought to be the elixir of life, bestowing long life and perhaps even immortality. Fifty years ago this month, a genuine philosopher's stone was discovered — only it was a small, white, circular tablet called Enovid, the first oral contraceptive.
I knew the biologists who developed "the pill" and the doctors who tested it. In the 1960s, as a young obstetrician in Britain, I began prescribing oral contraceptives. I saw how they gave women a freedom they'd never known. For the first time in history, women could choose if and when to have a child with relative ease. No uncertain rhythm method, no embarrassing interruption of lovemaking to put on a condom. Just a highly effective, easy-to-use method....
So why does the pill continue to have a bad image? Contraception on the whole challenges strong patriarchal traditions. It took Japan 40 years to register the pill but only six months to approve Viagra. John Rock, the obstetrician who conducted the first trials of the pill in Boston, was a devout Catholic who went to Mass every day. He argued that the pill was natural because it imitated pregnancy and breastfeeding, and most people expected the Vatican to bless the new method as licit for Catholics. Instead, in 1968, Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae condemning the pill. Rock and millions of Catholics stopped going to Mass, but popes up to and including Pope Benedict XVI have continued to tell Catholic women not to use birth-control pills.
Finally, the pill is misunderstood because it has remained a prescription drug. There is no reason why women need pelvic examinations before being prescribed an oral contraception. Scientifically, there is no reason not to sell it over the counter. It is safer than aspirin. Off-patent oral contraceptive pills, which are the ones we know the most about and which I would give my loved ones, cost less than 20 cents a pack to manufacture. The pill remains on prescription for reasons of pharmaceutical companies' profit rather than for the welfare of women. Not until the pill is on sale next to Extra Strength Tylenol will women believe how safe it really is....