"A cage of ovulating females" was the unflattering way that Katherine McCormick described what was needed to test out a little progesterone-based pill that weighed less than 1/100th of an ounce. McCormick, who sunk nearly two million dollars into the development of Dr. Gregory Pinkus' landmark contribution to the world--an invention so earth-shattering that it would henceforth be known by the simple iconic name of "the pill"--was financially heeding the call of another tireless crusader for women's reproductive rights, the legendary Margaret Sanger, who commissioned Pinkus to work on the paradigm shifting drug. Once ready, the team found its "cage" in tropical Puerto Rico, where--in the early '60s--the women were essentially used as guinea pigs for the pill, without being informed of potential side effects. One side effect, in particular, death from thrombosis--or blood clotting--appeared in young, otherwise healthy females almost from the start, although it would take another decade before the so-called "high dose" pills would be discontinued in the U.S. (but not in the Third World, where inventory was dumped). Narrated by Ann Marie-MacDonald (whose novel Fall on Your Knees was one of my favorite books of the last decade), Erna Buffie and Elise Swerhone's The Pill is an interesting (not to mention disturbing) multidisciplinary history which reminds us all that the routes science take are neither always the swiftest nor the most humane. Combining excellent archival footage, as well as interviews with subjects of the original experiments, activists, doctors and social critics (including Gloria Steinem), this thought-provoking, award-winning overview of the "magic bullet" that remains a subject of controversy even today is definitely recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
The Pill
(1999) 45 min. $245: colleges & universities; $89: high schools & public libraries. Women Make Movies. PPR. Vol. 15, Issue 6
The Pill
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