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The message wasn’t subtle in one of the first advertisements for the birth control pill. Greek mythological figure Andromeda is shown looking upward, her wrists bound in manacles. An accompanying caption ends with a four-word promise: “freed from her chains.”
On May 9, 1960, when the pill was first approved by the FDA as a contraceptive method in the U.S., the demand was immediate. Within four years, more than four million women had used what was then marketed under the name Enovid. Now, more a half century later, the pill is the most common birth control method used by women of reproductive age. In recent years, a social media campaign has even formed around the hashtag #ThxBirthControl.
But before the circular dials and rectangular packs gained a regular spot on bathroom sinks and at the bottom of purses, the people behind them first had to prove they were effective – and to do that, they needed to test them on humans.
Where they chose to conduct those tests marks one the most controversial — and rarely discussed — chapters in the...