Birth Control Pill Essay

The first birth control pill, Enovid was approved by the FDA on June 23,1960 to be used as an oral contraceptive.3 This pill was remarkable in that it allowed millions of women controls over reproduction. The pill allowed women to separate vaginal intercourse from procreation for the first time.1 However, its introduction was meet and rightful so with a series of questions about the safety of the pill. This is well documented in The New York Times during 1960s. Most of these newspaper blogs and articles called for the FDA to further investigated “The Pill” while others questioned the reason behind declaring “The Pill” safe. Common headlines from New York Time newspaper around the 1960s include “Birth Control Pills ‘Safe,’ Drug Agency Reports Says” and “Health Report on “The

They also provide information about “The Pill” and why it cannot be truly safe because of the uncertain side effects. The article, “Birth Control Pills ‘Safe,’ Drug Agency Report Says” (Image 1) discussed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to declare “The Pill” safe despite a definite cause and effect relationship between deaths by blood clots and the using “the pill.”4 The author noted that a research study found that, women using “the pill” were 4.4 times more likely to die from blood clotting than women you do not use it. The decision was made by the FDA because the risk outweighed the benefit. 4 Throughout the article, the author merely presents facts and the opinions of scientists. As such, it can be concluded that the purpose of this article was to inform the public of the safety of “the pill. Concerning the safety of “the pill”, the author quoted Dr. Hellman, a chairman of the obstetric/gynecology department at a medical center in New York. When asked about using “the pill”, Dr. Hellman used a traffic light analogy and said “the light for “the pill” was still at