50th Anniversary of the Pill

The latest issue of Time has a very interesting cover story by Executive Editor Nancy Gibbs on the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill.  The piece gives a concise, but still comprehensive historical overview of the development of the Pill and the early controversy surrounding it, most notably its initial condemnation by most major religious denominations.

Even today, these critics like to point to what they perceive as negative social trends that occurred during the 1960s and suggest cause and effect.  Increased sexual promiscuity, a sudden spike in divorce rates and assorted other social ills are all attributed to the the availability of oral contraceptives, merely because they appeared at roughly the same time.

Recent research, however, suggests a strong correlation between women's access to family planning and their attainment of higher levels of education.  Gibbs cites Harvard economist Claudia Goldin who offers an example:

"From 1970 to 1980, Goldin notes, women went from comprising 10% of first year law students to 36% and from 4% of business school students to 28%.  'I've taken a lot of grief by people who insist the Pill had nothing to do with this, it's all the women's movement,' she says. But her research showed the connection between the point at which different states allowed access to the Pill and the progress women made in those states."

Most women who use the Pill, however, are not concerned with its politics.  They simply view it as a tool to control their own fertility, one of the most intimate and private choices anyone can make.  In 1965, the Supreme Court, in Griswold vs. Connecticut struck down a law in that state prohibiting the use of contraception by married couples.  In doing so they ruled that the Constitution does indeed contain an inherent right to privacy, something all of us so rightly cherish today.