Today is the 50th anniversary of the FDA’s approval of the birth control pill. Today the questions, “do you want kids?” and “when will you start having children?” are as common as the questions, “what do you want out of life?” and “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
The reproductive freedom granted by the birth control pill changed American society forever.
Eighty percent of women will use the pill at some point in their life. Those who choose to take the pill can also choose when and if they will have children without having to abstain from sexual activity. Women who choose to take the pill can also take more control of their health and are more empowered to make their own life timelines, deciding on their own how long they will pursue interests outside of family life.
Brief History of the Pill
After a nearly 50-year fight to make birth control easily accessible to American woman, Margaret Sanger’s great battle for birth control at long last broke major ground. In May of 1960 the G.D. Searle drug company received FDA approval to sell an ovulation-inhibiting estrogen and progestin pill, or what they called Envoid, to the public.
No other object has had as large an impact on changing women’s roles in society and furthering women’s equality as the white little pill that sits proudly in its travel case.
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Hurray for the pill!
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