Forty-six years ago on May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Enovid as the first prescription oral contraceptive. "The Pill" has proved to jeopardize women's health in addition to marriage and family. The Pill has even been called an assault on women's health experts and even by those involved in developing and testing the drug.
As we examined in yesterday's post, the Pill has certainly not lived up to its promise of worry-free marital relations. On the other hand, it opened up the floodgates for promiscuity and extramarital affairs.
The development of the Pill was funded by the birth control advocates who created the Planned Parenthood with hopes of the perfect drug to cure the world of inferior races and stop the (unfounded) fears of an overpopulated world. In their 1991 book Blessed are the Barren, Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan provide thorough research on the history of the Planned Parenthood and their agenda against fertility and family. Chapter eight is dedicated to examining the Pill from its origin.
It had been well-known since the early 20th century that artificial hormones could be used to interfere with fertility, but it was considered far too dangerous. In the early 1950s, many prominent people who supported the Planned Parenthood's agenda flooded them with over a million dollars in donations, and serious development of a new drug began.
A simple memo from assistant chief of the FDA's New Drug Branch stating that the Pill was approved for use in May 1960. Yet, women had died during the trials, and even Alan Guttmacher, a champion for contraceptives and Planned Parenthood board member, said "It is our opinion that the oral tablet has not yet been proved medically safe or highly effective... [S]teroid drugs are aimed at the wrong target organ. To attempt to inhibit the pituitary, which has so many functions besides stimulating the ovary, is fraught with dangers." Donovan and Marshall note that even "such warnings did not impede approval." [1]
It wasn't until five years later that it became legal for these drugs to be distributed to the general public through Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479) United States Supreme Court decision.
Women continued to died from the drug, but that is not all. Women's healthcare has been weakened by the ideology that is behind such a lethal Pill. It is now given without hesitation for every ailment from irregular periods to acne without consideration of any alternative regimen or the serious side effects. In her 1994 book Sexual Chemistry: Understanding Our Hormones, the Pill and HRT, Dr. Ellen Grant even points out the contradiction in how acne is treated in teen guys and girls. "[P]rogestogen is in pills prescribed for adolescent girls' acne, but not for boys who are more likely to suffer from acne. It is simpler and safer to treat acne in either sex with zinc supplementation, fish oils and a low-allergy diet." [2]
Although No Room for Contraception is a non-religious organization, please take time to join our friends at OR Boston in a day of prayer for God's mercy on our world for the use of medicine for such destruction- click [here]
For more information on the harms of contraception, please visit www.noroomforcontraception.com.
ENDNOTES
[1] Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan, Blessed are the Barren, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991. p. 213-214, emphasis added.
[2] Grant, Dr. Ellen, Sexual Chemistry: Understanding Our Hormones, the Pill and HRT, London: Cedar Paperbacks, 1995. p. 122
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