Saturday, May 9 marked 60 years since the FDA’s approval of the birth control pill. Birth control is essential health care that is used not only for family planning, but also to control medical conditions like endometriosis. according to Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the world’s first commercially produced birth control pill, Enovid-10 on May 9, 1960.  The G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, Illinois, made the pill. It was pioneered by activist, educator and nurse Margaret Sanger. Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States in 1916. Gregory Pincus and John Rock started to run clinical tests of the pill in 1954 and six years later it was FDA approved.

However, in the U.S., it wasn’t until 1965 that married couples were given the right to use the pill and that was only in 24 states. In 1972 the Supreme Court made it legally available to everyone.

However, in the U.S., it wasn’t until 1965 that married couples were given the right to use the pill and that was only in 24 states. In 1972 the Supreme Court made it legally available to everyone.

An estimated 62 million people benefit from birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Access to birth control — and the ability to decide when you get pregnant — is responsible for one-third of women’s wage gains relative to men’s since the 1960s, according to Forbes.

Yet in 2020, the right to birth control remains under attack. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Pennsylvania, a case to consider Trump administration rules that would allow an employer or university to deny contraceptive coverage because of their personal objections.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended birth control access (from her hospital bed, no less!), and following oral arguments, Vice President Joe Biden released a statement on the importance of contraception and taking the Trump administration to task for trying to end access.

Image Sources

  • Birth control: Shutterstock