The History of Women and Birth Control

By Veronica Mackey

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we find a plethora of people and inventions to celebrate.  However, nothing has impacted women’s history more than birth control.  In fact, one might argue, it is what made success for women much more sustainable.

Since the modern era of birth control began around 1960, women’s progress began to accelerate.  No longer confined to being at the whim of hormones, women enjoyed more freedom and the ability to focus on social justice and their careers.  They worried less about whether they would become pregnant.  They could control if and when they became pregnant.  

Now that pharmaceutical company Perrigo has announced the first over-the-counter birth control pill approved by the Federal Drug Administration, the doors to women’s reproductive freedom have widened. 

The Opill will be available on pharmacy and store shelves nationwide, and online in the coming weeks, after being greenlighted by the FDA last July.  The pills will cost about $20 for a 30-day suppl, and can run around $90 for a 6-month supply. 

The company said it plans to offer a cost-assistance program to help qualified low-income, uninsured individuals obtain the product at low or no cost.

While the birth control pill bolstered the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement, the notion of contraception actually began as early as 3000 BCE.  During this time, it is believed that ancient societies like Crete and Egypt began developing condoms made from animal and fish bladders or intestines.

Around 1850 BCE, Egypt is credited with developing the world’s first spermicides by combining crocodile dung and fermented dough.  So it seems that the ability to control if and when pregnancy occurs has been of enormous importance for men and women, for thousands of years.  And so have attempts by religious and government leaders to stop it.  

Here are a few historical highlights:

1619-1870:   African women use folk remedies to create medicines to protect themselves from unwanted reproduction by white men.

1855: The first rubber condom was made.

1907:  The United States government began sterilizing people who were considered useless or undesirable by society (mentally unwell, diseased, and dependent).

1914:  Public health nurse Margaret Sanger coins the term “birth control” and begins her campaign to make contraceptives legal in the U.S.

1960: The first oral contraceptive is approved by the FDA. It quickly became known simply as “the pill.”

1965: The Supreme Court gives married couples the right to use birth control. Millions of unmarried women are still denied birth control.

1993: The FDA approves the first female condom. 

1998–1999: The FDA approves the first emergency contraception that can be used after intercourse to prevent pregnancy.

2002: The first hormonal implant is removed from the market due to controversial side effects. 

2010: Congress passes the Affordable Care Act (ACA), prohibiting sex discrimination in health insurance and requiring coverage of all preventive health care without copays.

2013: The FDA approves over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception for people under the age of 18.

2014: The Supreme Court holds that employers with religious objections can refuse to cover contraception in their health insurance plans.

2017: The Trump administration expands the religious exemption from the ACA contraceptive mandate to include employers of any size, and for moral objections of any kind as well.

2020: The Supreme Court upholds the Trump administration’s religious and moral exemptions to the ACA’s contraceptive mandate, blocking access to insurance-covered birth control,  disproportionately harming low-income women.

2022: The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) arguing that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion.

The history of birth control is a controversial one, which involves elements of racism, gender bias, politics, religion, economics and big pharma.  Ironically, after thousands of years,  there is still a whole lot of public debate over something that stems from a private act between a man and a woman.