Media Examine Misconceptions About Birth Control Pill 50 Years After Its Approval

Three media outlets recently examined the birth control pill's role in societal changes of the last half century.

~ USA Today: There are several "misconceptions" about the pill, including that it was a catalyst for the sexual revolution and caused a sudden decline in the U.S. fertility rate, USA Today reports. Nonetheless, the pill's "influence has been lasting and pervasive," and it "became a symbol of women's rights and generational change," according to USA Today. Andrea Tone, a McGill University history professor and author of "Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America," said that it is "not that a technology changes everything. ... It's how people react to the technology." In the case of the pill, political, cultural, medical and religious factors combined to shape how it was perceived and used, Tone added. The USA Today article also discusses University of Minnesota historian Elaine Tyler May's new book, "America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril and Liberation," and continuing barriers to women's use of contraception, including emergency contraception (Rubin, USA Today, 5/7).

~ AP/Miami Herald: Although the pill is "now widely acknowledged" as one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century, how much the pill contributed to societal changes of the past 50 years remains "debatable," the AP/Miami Herald reports. The pill afforded women unprecedented control over their fertility, but some experts argue that the pill receives too much credit for the sexual revolution. Meanwhile, "some things haven't changed" since the pill was introduced, such as the pursuit of a male birth control pill the AP/Herald reports. In addition, the pill "didn't eliminate all unwanted pregnancies either" (Johnson, AP/Miami Herald, 5/7).

~ Newsweek: May's book "debunks a number of myths about the pill," Newsweek reports. May argues that the pill itself did not launch the sexual revolution, which she says is more directly attributable to the modern feminist movement. She notes that the pill did not immediately benefit single women, as it was illegal in many states and many doctors would not prescribe it to unmarried women. May also refutes the notion that the pill "is a woman's issue," according to Newsweek. May said it was men who were the most liberated by the pill because they "no longer had to worry about whether they impregnated a woman." Lastly, she disputes the notion that male doctors were responsible for the pill's development, explaining that activist Margaret Sanger and philanthropist Katherine McCormick, who funded much of the research, were the driving forces (Kantrowitz/Wingert, Newsweek, 5/6).


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