John Rock, a dashing gynecologist who helped him develop and test what came to be a safe, effective, and widely used oral contraceptive.įormer Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Eig tells the story of how Sanger’s persistence, Pincus’ ingenuity, McCormick’s support and Rock’s acumen led to its development in The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution. And she found Katharine McCormick, a wealthy woman who could underwrite the research. Gregory Pincus, a Harvard scientist who was developing an early form of in vitro fertilization. A pill that prevented pregnancy seemed a ridiculous proposition-too risky, too dangerous, too much a challenge to the natural order. Through most of the first half of the 20th century, women’s rights activist Margaret Sanger looked to science to develop such a mythic means of birth control, and she found no takers. Everyday you swallow a tiny pill, and your body suspends its ability to procreate. A gynecologist at Harvard named John Rock was convinced by the importance of the pill and joined Pincus in appealing to women for study.The concept of the pill-as in “the pill,” as in the oral contraceptive that’s a routine part of daily life for millions of women around the world-sounds like science fiction when you reduce it to its most elemental. While Eig said that Pincus’s discovery was promising, the ban on contraceptives in 30 states prevented the researcher from recruiting a sufficient number of subjects to test his creation.

Frankenstein,” Pincus quickly developed a method for preventing ovulation with progesterone-an effort motivated by Sanger’s quest and funded by the wealthy McCormick. According to Eig, Sanger sought a “miracle tablet that would allow women to turn on and off their reproductive systems.'Īlongside Sanger in the suffrage movement was Katherine McCormick, a wealthy MIT graduate who introduced Sanger to Dr.

The author’s curiosity motivated him to delve into the seemingly impossible feat that four of the “miracle pill” pioneers accomplished in the sixties.Įig shared the story of female rights activist Margaret Sanger, who advocated for contraceptives and sex for pleasure’s sake among other ideas in the 1950’s.

And then it occurred to me, if it’s so important, why don’t I know anything about where it came from?” Eig said.

“I really began to appreciate the huge impact it made on all of our lives. By Shunella Grace LumasĪt the sermon, Eig said that he heard “the birth control pill was one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.” Though skeptical at first, Eig said he pondered this statement and was struck by its veracity after some research. New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Eig addresses the crowd about history of birth control pills during a discussion for his new book, 'The Birth of the Pill,' at the Countway Medical Library of Harvard Medical School on Tuesday afternoon.

The birth of the pill jonathan eig