America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation (22 page)

CHAPTER 5

1. Internet survey respondent Leslie C, age 27, 2008.
   

2. Nelly Oudshoorn,
   The Male Pill: A Biography of a Technology in the Making
   (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), pp. 29–31.
   

3. No byline, “Birth control: Is male contraception the answer?”
   Good Housekeeping
   , April 1969, vol. 168, no. 4, pp. 201–203, quote on p. 202.
   

4. Oudshoorn,
   The Male Pill
   , pp. 6–10, 46.
   

5. George Gallup, “Male Sterilization Approved,”
   Boston Globe
   , September 4, 1970, unpaginated clipping, clipping file of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Cambridge, MA (hereafter cited as “Schlesinger clipping file”).
   

6. Elizabeth Canfield, editor,
   Emko Newsletter
   , August 1973, p. 2 (Schlesinger clipping file).
   

7. Oudshoorn,
   The Male Pill
   , pp. 24, 70–73, 87–88; Tone,
   Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America
   (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), pp. 253–254.
   

8. Harold Jackson, “Chemical Methods of Male Contraception,” quoted in Oudshoorn,
   The Male Pill
   , p. 19.
   

9. Quoted in Oudshoorn,
   The Male Pill
   , p. 21.
   

10. Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , pp. 39–40, 72.
    

11. Ibid., pp. 21, 47, quote on p. 47.
    

12. Quoted in Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , p. 19.
    

13. Quoted in Tone,
    Devices and Desires
    , p. 253.
    

14. Letters are quoted in Tone,
    Devices and Desires
    , pp. 246–247.
    

15. Dr. Lindsay R. Curtis, “Pill for men? Research under way,”
    Boston Globe
    , November 13, 1970, unpaginated clipping, Schlesinger clipping file.
    

16. Gregory Pincus,
    The Control of Fertility
    (New York: Academic Press, 1965), p. 194, quoted in Elizabeth Siegel Watkins,
    On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950–1970
    (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 20.
    

17. Quoted in Tone,
    Devices and Desires
    , p. 252.
    

18. Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , pp. 87–110, quote on page 107.
    

19. Victor Cohn, “Pill scare, lib movement place birth onus on male,”
    The Washington Post
    , undated clipping, 1970, Schlesinger clip- ping file.
    

20. Ernest Dunbar, “Foolproof Birth Control,”
    Look
    , March 9, 1971, p. 45, Schlesinger clipping file.
    

21. Dr. Lindsay R. Curtis, “Male reader asks about sterilization,”
    Boston Globe
    , October 7, 1970, unpaginated clipping, Schlesinger clipping file.
    

22. John J. Fried, “The Incision Decision,”
    Esquire
    LXXVII, 6 (Whole No. 463) ( June 1972), pp. 118–177.
    

23. Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill,
    p. 67; L. Witt, “The Male Contra- ceptive: A Bitter Pill?”
    Today’s Health,
    June 1970, pp. 17–20, 60–63.
    

24. Jennifer Macleod, “How to Hold a Wife: A Bridegroom’s Guide,”
    Village Voice
    , February 11, 1971, p. 5, quoted in Tone,
    Devices and Desires
    , p. 251.
    

25. B. Cowan, “Breakthrough in Male Contraception,”
    Spare Rib
    , April 1980, issue 93, p. 9, reprinted from
    East Bay Men’s Centre Newsletter
    and
    The Periodical Lunch
    , Ann Arbor, Michigan. Illustra- tion by Dawn Bracey, Schlesinger clipping file.
    

26. No byline, “Tiny Gold Valves to Control Fertility,”
    Life
    , July 28, 1972, pp. 54–56.
    

27. Witt, “The Male Contraceptive,” p. 20.
    

28. Victor Cohn, “Contraceptive cream for males proposed,”
    Boston Globe
    , August 20, 1983, unpaginated clipping; Associated Press, “Con- traceptive Salve for Men Reported Ready for Testing,” unidentified clipping (both in Schlesinger clipping file).
    

29. Quoted in David M. Rorvik, “What’s better than the Pill, Va- sectomy, Celibacy and Rhythm?”
    Esquire
    LXXXII, 1 (Whole No. 494) ( January 1975), pp. 100–158.
    

30. Ibid.
    

31. No byline, World Book Science Service, “Antifertility Drug Developed for Men, Rats,”
    Minneapolis Tribune
    , July 7, 1970, un- paginated clipping, Schlesinger clipping file. The compound was also
    

    mentioned as a promising male contraceptive in “Birth Control: is male contraception the answer?” in
    Good Housekeeping
    , April 1969, vol. 168, no. 4, p. 202.
    

32. Witt, “The Male Contraceptive,” pp. 17–20.
    

33. No byline, “Birth Control: is male contraception the answer?”
    

    Good Housekeeping
    , April 1969, vol. 168, no. 4, p. 202.
    

34. No byline (UPI), “Male Contraceptive Is Tested But Side- Effects Prohibit Use,”
    New York Times
    , September 17, 1981, unpag- inated clipping (Schlesinger clipping file).
    

35. No byline, “Researchers Test Birth Control Injection for Men,”
    New York Times
    , February 24, 1987, unpaginated clipping (Schlesinger clipping file).
    

36. Sheldon J. Segal, “Contraceptive research: A male chauvinist plot?”
    Family Planning Perspectives
    , vol. 4, issue 3, pp. 21–25, quoted in Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , pp. 8–9.
    

37. Morton Hair, researcher at St. Mary’s Hospital, University of Manchester, in an interview with the BBC News, October 25, 1998, quoted in Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , p. 9; Bernard Asbell,
    The Pill
    (New York: Random House, 1995), pp. 341–346.
    

38. Jane E. Brody, “Why a Lag in Male-Oriented Birth Control?”
    

    New York Times
    , October 16, 1983, p. 18 E (Schlesinger clipping file).
    

39. Unsigned editorial, “Men and Birth Control,”
    New York Times
    , November 19, 1983, Section 1, page 24, Schlesinger clipping file.
    

40. Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , pp. 25–27.
    

41. For more on thalidomide and Kelsey, see Chapter 6.
    

42. Ann Banks, “Futura: The Pill for Men?”
    Boston Magazine
    , February 1977, p. 4, Schlesinger clipping file.
    

43. Erin M, age 23.
    

44. Quotes are from Oudshoorn,
    The Male Pill
    , pp. 180–181, 183,
    

1. For changing attitudes, see Chapter 8. For the astronaut ad, see p. 187.
   

   1. Jonathan Bender, “244 Words on Why Men Need The Pill,”
      

      DAME for women who know better
      , April 29, 2008 www.damemagazine
      

      .com/dame-daily/features/f346/244WordsonWhyMenNeedThe Pill.php, accessed July 7, 2008.
      

   2. Quoted in John Schieszer, “Male Birth Control Pill Soon a Reality,” MSNBC at www
      .msnbc.msn.com/id/3543478/, accessed June 8, 2009.
      

   3. Bender, “244 Words on Why Men Need The Pill.”
      

   4. Mary B, Internet survey respondent.
      

   5. Stuart H, Internet survey respondent.
      

   6. Kelly H, Internet survey respondent.
      

   7. Cathy S, Internet survey respondent.
      

   8. Internet survey respondents Rachel A, age 28; Donna H, age 17; Susan G, 22-year-old student.
      

   9. MSNBC article at www
      .msnbc.msn.com/id/3543478/, ac- cessed June 8, 2009.
      

   10. BBC Web site accessed 10/4/09: http://news.bbc.co
       .uk/2/hi/ special_report/1998/viagra/194029.stm; no byline, “Health Warnings to Viagra Users,” BBC News, November 25, 1998, http://news.bbc
       

1. o.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/viagra/221497.stm, accessed October 28, 2009.
   

   CHAPTER 6
   

   1. Barbara Seaman,
      The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill
      (Alameda, CA: Hunter House, originally published 1969, 1995 edition), p. 1.
      

   2. Elizabeth Siegel Watkins,
      On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950–1970
      (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 12.
      

   3. Margaret March and Wanda Ronner,
      The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution
      (Baltimore: Johns Hop- kins Univ. Press, 2008), especially Chapter 9: “The Pill Falls from Grace.”
      

   4. David Burnham, “Birth Control: End of a Taboo,”
      The Nation
      , vol. 200, no. 4 ( January 25, 1965), pp. 85–86.
      

   5. Loretta McLaughlin,
      The Pill, John Rock, and the Church: The Biography of a Revolution
      (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1982), pp. 151–153.
      

   6. Colin S, Internet survey respondent, October 6, 2008.
      

   7. Quoted in
      U.S. News & World Report
      , vol. 55, no. 12 (Septem- ber 9, 1963), p. 11.
      

   8. Robert E. Hall, M.D., “The Church and the Pill,”
      The Nation
      , vol. 199, no. 9 (October 5, 1964), pp. 191–193.
      

   9. For an excellent history of the controversy within the Church and the events leading to the Pope’s encyclical, see Marsh and Ron- ner,
      The Fertility Doctor
      , pp. 227–257; see also McLaughlin,
      The Pill, John Rock, and the Church
      .
      

   10. For Rock’s views on contraception and abortion, see Marsh and Ronner,
       Fertility Doctor
       , p. 241. For his Catholic upbringing, see p. 10.
       

   11. Marsh and Ronner,
       Fertility Doctor
       , pp. 235–245.
       

   12. See Rev. John W. O’Malley,
       What Happened at Vatican II
       

       (Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2008).
       

   13. Pete Seeger,
       The Pill
       , 1966.
       

   14. Marsh and Ronner,
       The Fertility Doctor
       , pp. 254–255; Lara V. Marks,
       Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill
       (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), Chapter 9.
       

   15. Xavier Rynne, “Letter from Vatican City,”
       The New Yorker
       , vol. XLIV, no. 37, November 2, 1968, pp. 131–147.
       

   16. Marsh and Ronner,
       Fertility Doctor
       , pp. 227, 254.
       

   17. Robert W. Kistner, M.D., “What ‘The Pill’ Does to Hus- bands,”
       Ladies Home Journal
       , January 1969, pp. 66–68.
       

   18. See, for example, David Oshinsky,
       Polio: An American Story
       

       (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005); and Andrea Tone,
       The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers
       (New York: Basic Books, 2009).
       

   19. Tone,
       The Age of Anxiety
       , p. 27, and Chapter 2 on Miltown.
       

   20. Tone,
       The Age of Anxiety
       , pp. 147–150.
       

   21. Lara V. Marks,
       Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill
       (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 138 and Chap- ter 6.
       

   22. Aurora M, 54, African American, Internet survey respondent.
       

   23. June S, no age given, story of her mother, Internet survey respondent.
       

   24. Ilene W, 64, Internet survey respondent.
       

   25. One man responding to the Internet survey recalled, “The Pill plus Barbara Seaman’s book
       The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill
       were instrumental solidifying my interest in women’s health issues and be- coming a pro-feminist.” Stephen M, age 59, married 30 years, Cana- dian, Internet survey respondent.
       

   26. Seaman,
       The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill
       , p. 12.
       

   27. Marsh and Ronner,
       The Fertility Doctor
       , pp. 269–277.
       

   28. Marsh and Ronner,
       The Fertility Doctor
       , p. 275.
       

   29. Marsh and Ronner,
       The Fertility Doctor
       , pp. 269–277.
       

   30. Elizabeth Siegel Watkins,
       On the Pill
       , p. 4.
       

   31. David Susskind Show
       , 1977, viewed at the Schlesinger Li- brary. The panelists included Barbara Seaman, Melvin Taymor,
       

       M.D. (Harvard), Howard I. Shapiro, M.D. (Author of
       The Birth Control Book
       ), Ben Zion Taber, M.D. (Stanford), and Edwin Ortiz,
       

       M.D. (FDA).
       

   32. Tone,
       Devices and Desires
       (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), p. 249.
       

   33. Quoted in Kathy Davis,
       The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves: How Feminism Travels Across Borders
       (Durham, NC: Duke Univer- sity Press, 2007), p. 23.
       

   34. Boston Women’s Health Book Collective,
       Our Bodies, Our- selves
       (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973 edition), p. 115.
       

   35. BWHBC,
       Our Bodies, Ourselves
       , 1976 edition, p. 188; 1984 edition, p. 240, emphasis added.
       

   36. BWHBC,
       Our Bodies, Ourselves
       , 1992 edition, p. 280; 1998 edition, pp. 293–294.
       

   37. BWHBC,
       Our Bodies, Ourselves
       ,
       A New Edition for a New Era
       , 2005, pp. 322, 332.
       

   38. Sheldon J. Segal,
       Under the Banyan Tree
       (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 95–98.
       

   39. Quoted in Dorothy Roberts,
       Killing the Black Body: Race, Re- production, and the Meaning of Liberty
       (New York: Pantheon, 1997), pp. 106–107.
       

   40. Segal,
       Under the Banyan Tree
       , pp. 100–101.
       

   41. Quoted in Roberts,
       Killing the Black Body
       , pp. 104–108.
       

   42. Roberts,
       Killing the Black Body
       , p. 117. Dorothy Roberts also noted that distributing Norplant to adolescent girls deflected the problem away from the adult men who were largely responsible for teen pregnancies.
       

   43. Tone,
       Devices and Desires
       , p. 288.
       

   44. Segal,
       Under the Banyan Tree
       , pp. 101–105.
       

   45. Segal,
       Under the Banyan Tree
       , p. 141.
       

   46. More than 3,000 women sued Johnson and Johnson, claiming that users of the Ortho-Evra birth control patch suffered heart attacks and strokes. Between 2002 and 2006, the FDA received reports of fifty deaths associated with the patch. Johnson and Johnson acknowledged that the patch delivered much more estrogen than the low-dose birth control pill and that the company had not made that information avail- able to consumers. Yet because the FDA had approved the patch and had not notified the public about potential risks until 2005, Johnson and Johnson claimed that it was not liable for any harm. New warnings were added to the package in 2006 and again in 2008. Gardiner Harris and Alex Berenson, “Drug Makers Near Old Goal: A Legal Shield,”
       The New York Times
       , April 6, 2008, www.nytimes.com; Miranda Hitte, “Stronger Warning for Birth Control Patch: FDA Strengthens Warn- ing on Blood Clot Risk for Users of Ortho Evra Birth Control Skin Patch,” Jan. 18, 2008, WebMD Health News, reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D., www
       .webmd.com/sex/birth-control/news/20080118/ birth-control-patch-stronger-warning, accessed 12/31/08.
       

   47. American consumers continued to use the courts to assure product safety. In the 1990s, there were 20,000 product liability suits in the United States for all products, including contracep- tives, and only 200 in the United Kingdom. Other European countries had similarly low rates of litigation. These contrasts re- sult in part from different legal systems. For example, contingent fee arrangements, in which lawyers are paid only if they win the case for their clients, are common in the United States but not al- lowed in Europe. Expert witnesses in the United States are se- lected by each side in a conflict, leading to courtroom battles between experts who have been prepared as friendly witnesses by the lawyers whose case they promote. In Europe that practice would be considered unethical. European judges designate the ex- perts who will testify and present scientific evidence, and lawyers cannot consult with the experts before the trial. Segal,
       Under the Banyan Tree
       , pp. 141–142.
       

   48. Oudshoorn,
       The Male Pill
       , pp. 28–29.