‘The pill' turns 50: Has it lived up to the hype?

By Lynn Peisner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Before they were packaged in day-of-the-week compact dispensers, the first oral contraceptives produced in 1960 came in little  brown bottles, along with a big promise of choice, control and freedom from unplanned pregnancy.

They were the “magic pills” Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, first dreamed of in 1912.

When a girly bouquet of the colorful pharmaceuticals made the cover of Time magazine in 1967, the pill was touted as a force that “has changed and liberated the sex and family life of a large and growing segment of the U.S. population.”

Now, as the pill turns 50 on Sunday, some who work with women's reproductive health issues are reflecting on whether it has lived up to those  promises.

"I think Margaret Sanger would be proud that Planned Parenthood is the biggest provider of reproductive health care in America," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "And I also think she would be dismayed that it is still so hard for so many women to get access to birth control."

Richards is in Washington, D.C., lobbying the Department of Health and Human Services to make affordable access to birth control part of health care reforms.

Meanwhile, others who are also concerned with the problem of unintended pregnancies continue to object to wider access to contraception.

"To say you need more access – I just wonder how much more do they think they could make it available?” said Mary Boyert, director of the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Respect Life Ministry. “Greater access to contraception does not reduce unintended pregnancies or abortions.”

Most teens know the pill is an option, and in Georgia minors don’t need a parent’s permission to obtain it. But its very existence works against the message some want young people to get about their bodies.

“Sex was not designed to be used as a recreational activity,” Boyert said. “With teens, the best way to prevent unintended pregnancy is to practice abstinence. And it is not impossible to practice abstinence and to reserve sex for marriage, which is where it belongs.”

While the rate of teen pregnancies has dropped in Georgia over the past decade, it’s still eighth-highest in the nation, according to the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention.

There are 62 new teen pregnancies in the state every day, GCAPP reports.

Add to that the “prime time” of unintended pregnancy among 20- to 29-year-olds that Kay Scott, president of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said hasn’t moved much in the half-century since the pill became available. She cites fear of weight gain, which she said is a myth, as one of the reasons that age group stops taking the pill.

To Marie Mitchell, a registered nurse who directed the family planning clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital for 37 years prior to joining the staff at the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health, simply preaching abstinence isn't enough. “We have to face the reality that our young people are living in a society that’s highly sexualized,” she said. “We’re kind of schizophrenic about sex in this country. It’s everywhere in movies and media, and then we don’t want to talk about it."

Mitchell added that because sex education in Georgia is mandated at the local level, information kids receive can run the gamut from intensive and thorough guidance to peripheral mentions of abstinence.

"In reality, sex is our second strongest drive as human beings. It’s who we all are," Mitchell said. "Young people have to be a little bit more equipped than to just say no because from a biological and a natural standpoint, they would be much more likely to say yes.”

But Boyert doesn't believe that biology has to trump morality: "We must continually look for ways to teach young people the true meaning of their sexuality and not throw up our hands and give in.”

Richards, though, views unintended pregnancy as a “serious public health problem” and believes the political winds in Washington have shifted.

“I don’t care whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or a red state or a blue state, that’s a problem that we all have to take steps to address,” she said.

“A window is now open with a government that understands [free or affordable access to contraception] is a basic women’s health issue,” Richards said. “It may be the next biggest opportunity we’ve had since the birth control pill was created.”