Abstract
Although medical history has documented the desire to control fertility since ancient
times, safe and effective contraception did not exist until this century and has not
been equally available to all people. Strong moral sentiments, economic and social
class factors, religious beliefs, familial and gender relations, and political as
well as legal constraints have often limited the ability of physicians in favor of
contraception to provide advice and methods of birth control to their patients. By
the early 1900s, a constellation of factors—in particular, the large influx of poor
immigrants, and feminist groups advocating women’s rights—helped to move forward a
birth-control movement in this country and abroad. In the early 20th century, Margaret
Sanger became one of the most avid proponents of contraception in the United States.
By 1950, she and Katharine McCormick had contracted with biologist Gregory Pincus
to develop an effective birth control pill. A collaborative effort by Pincus and other
researchers led to trials of the pill in Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Mexico between 1956
and 1957, which provided the basis for an application to the Food and Drug Administration
for approval of the first oral contraceptive.
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References
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Copyright
© 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
