50th anniversary of the pill

Rutgers­Camden historian puts 50th anniversary of the pill into
cultural medicine cabinet

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2010/03/rutgerscamden_historian_puts_5.html

By John Barna
March 20, 2010

CAMDEN ­ Americans consume innumerable amounts of medicine, but only
one pill is known precisely as "the pill." This year marks the 50th
anniversary of oral contraception, an innovative collaboration
between Gregory Pincus and John Rock that some have called the
development of the 20th century.

As Rock's 120th birthday is commemorated on March 24, the only
comprehensive biography on Rock has its origins at Rutgers
University­Camden. Margaret Marsh, university professor of history
and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers­Camden, with
her sister Wanda Ronner, a clinical associate professor of obstetrics
and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
were the first researchers granted access to John Rock's personal
letters. Together they wrote the book The Fertility Doctor: John Rock
and the Reproductive Revolution (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

According to Marsh, Rock did not fully appreciate the far-reaching
impact of the pill. In fact, he predicted the pill would find its
greatest popularity among married couples. But when things turned
out differently, Rock wasn't upset. "When people warned that the
pill would allow even more unmarried couples to have sex, he would
reply that if these couples are having sex anyway then they might as
well be safe from pregnancy," notes Marsh of Haddonfield.

But the Rutgers­Camden historian adds that no one could have possibly
predicted all that transpired at the end of the 60s. "The first
decade of the pill witnessed so many changes that sometimes I find it
hard to believe that 1960 and 1968 are even in the same century," says Marsh.

The sexual revolution, she points out, didn't occur solely because of
the pill's existence. "There were many contributing factors like Baby
Boomers coming of age, more people going to college, and the huge
anti-war rebellion," she says. "What the pill did do is make it
possible for women to have careers. It really was the first foolproof
contraceptive."

While there are many more oral contraceptive options available to
women today ­ some 30 variations, in fact ­ one big difference since
the pill was first created are the lower doses of the various drugs in it.

"The creators had no idea how low a dose could be and still prevent
conceptions," notes Marsh.

And unlike the 1950s, the average age of parents today is
older. Couples tend to live together and then get married when they
decide to have children. "People can be engaged forever. In the 1950s
and early 1960s, people got married and were expected to have
children right away. Now we seem to postpone marriage until we're
ready to have children, increasing the age of when we do marry."

What hasn't changed since the early days of the pill is its tricky
relationship with certain religious groups. But Rock, an ardent
Catholic, nearly convinced the church to reconsider its views on
allowing contraception use by its members. According to Marsh, Rock
didn't completely fail in this pursuit.

"While contraceptives are against the laws of the Catholic Church,
American Catholics have come to rely on their consciences more than
on the pope's pronouncements regarding birth control," states Marsh.
"The pope has never spoken infallibly on the issue. When he speaks
'ex cathedra,' he can't be wrong, because he's speaking the direct
word of God. But the pope has never spoken 'ex cathedra' on the issue
of contraception."

In fact, American Catholics are using birth control in the same
numbers as the rest of the country. Today about 80% of women who have
used any form of contraception have used the pill at one time or
another in their lives.

What's in the future for reproductive medicine? With the introduction
of the pill and in vitro fertilization, by the end of the twentieth
century sex and reproduction had become uncoupled. Now you can
guarantee sex without reproduction and can also ensure reproduction
without sex. With even more advances on the horizon, Marsh predicts
that our definitions of family will be reevaluated.

"All of these technological advancements enlarge the question of what
it means to be a family. I see same-sex marriage as part of a
family-building trend, even a conservative one," posits Marsh. "A
hundred years from now, we won't think it's a big deal."

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