170. The Pill

The Pandemic has become a light and almost refreshing diversion from the horrors of war. Yes, people are still getting sick—and some are even dying. But the numbers are down so far and went down so fast that people across the country are breathing more freely again. And breathing without masks and trepidation at not wearing masks.

 

I think it was buried somewhere in President Biden’s speech, but  that free testing will now be accompanied by a free pill to those who test positive. The new Pfizer pill is apparently successful at warding off the worst impacts of the virus. This is the clincher. Even if I get the disease, there is now an easy way out.

 

That pill reminded me of another, of “the pill” that came into the world in 1960. It was an apex moment in contraception. Other methods of birth control, which had been common, especially among wealthier Americans, were prohibited by a series of “Comstock laws” beginning in the 1870s. They gradually loosened, and in the 1940s Planned Parenthood emerged as a vocal advocate for family planning, and in the 1950s, the Rockefeller founded “Population Council” started preaching the gospel world-wide as an antidote to overpopulation. 

 

It seemed that the pill had arrived just in time to solve problems, from family poverty to international resource scarcity. In the bargain, it would make another oft-practiced but increasingly distained and prohibited practice, abortion, unnecessary. 

 

Not quite. The pill came in 1960, but the purity movement stubbornly hung on. In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled that government could not stop married couples from practicing birth control. It wasn’t until the 1970s that restrictions for unmarried women were lifted. 

 

The liberalizing movement continued with the fight for abortion rights—the pill had apparently not fixed the birth control problem completely—and in 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that a woman had the right to control her body, including the right to abortion. 

 

Purity movements continue to fight abortion rights, and to advocate for specific definitions of family, the world’s population continues to grow, and starvation and wars beset us at this historic moment. It is doubtful that the Covid pill will completely stave off a virus that continues to weave its way around the world, continues to impact health care systems and local and national governments, and the lives of millions of ordinary people. 

 

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