CBC Radios The Current ran a great show on contraception this morning. It discussed the birth control pill, which is often credited with liberating women sexually and socially transforming society. But the show went further than many mainstream discussions of the pill and revealed some of the myths of the pill, including the racist underpinnings of the its development and the ways in which contraception is marked along racial, class and (more obviously) gender lines. The birth control pill has a shady past. For example, Margaret Sanger, the American woman credited with leading the US movement for birth control, was mostly interested in developing a pill for population-control reasons. She was a supporter of the eugenics movement and believed the pill would be effective in preventing poor women of colour from reproducing. The Current mentioned briefly that the pill was first tested by American researchers in Puerto Rico, but fails to fully explore some of the racist reasons why the pill was tested on Puerto Rican women, and doesnt mention that drugs developed by big pharmaceutical companies are still tested in third world countries, often without informing people of the potential side effects. The show covered a lot of other interesting pill-related issues. Listen to it here.
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six comments
One of the main reasons why the Pill and basically all other pharmaceuticals are tested in Puerto Rico is because this is where american companies have free reign to operate. It's an american jurisdiction, but doesn't qualify under american laws as "american soil". It's the reason why the CIA uses Puerto Rico as a base of operations for doing many of its operations. The vague legal status of Puerto Rico, the free access to it's population that americans are granted (they have a 100% reciprocal travel system, similar to canada and the US) make for the ultimate testing ground for drugs, thought control methods, terror techniques, etc...
Puerto Rico is America's last remaining conquored territory that is not a state, so it qualifies as "the bitch".
AMerica flogs that bitch often.
If you really want to get into straightout racism, look up statistics on unnecessary Hysterectomies. Hysterectomies are necessary in only about 1/5 of cases they are performed, and that other 4/5 are nearly all poor, uneducated hispanic women.
Posted by David DIneen-Porter
May 3, 2006, 10:10 AM
"Its the reason why the CIA uses Puerto Rico as a base of operations for doing many of its operations." I just noticed this monster.
Sorry.
Posted by David DIneen-Porter
May 3, 2006, 10:10 AM
BTW, Canada and america's reciprocal travel agreement has also allowed canada to be the testing ground for many drugs that americans can't test in america. ANd yes, Canada is also a hub of CIA testing activity. As the freedom of information act churns out more and more instances of this happening, the CIA routinely appologizes to our government for what it did 25 years ago (as it progresses, year by year).
Posted by David DIneen-Porter
May 3, 2006, 10:13 AM
Thanks so much for the link, Nicole, I've been very excited to hear it ever since you sent that e-mail 'round asking for interviews. I recently did a vehemoth essay on The Pill (the only essay I actually bothered doing any research for, go me!) so I read a bit on birth control as population control, both paranoia and reality, but this shadiness-of-Margaret-Sanger comes as an unwelcome surprise to me. I had read of her early work within poorer communities, educating underprivileged women on birth control. Hmm.. It's sad that I can't think of anything new or poignant to add to a discussion on birth control after having lived, breathed, and smelled birth control for a month straight... Hmm... well the pill Dr. Seaman is talking about, with 10x the amount of necessary estrogen was called Enovid. BOOYAH! AND I'M OUT! haha thanks again -L
Posted by Linda Paolucci
May 11, 2006, 10:45 PM
Orthonovum 10 mg is what I was prescribed by my doctor in Puerto Rico. I began taking the pill in 1964, but they had began giving the pill away since 1953. I'm indigenous of Puerto Rico, and back then we did not have the "information highway" we now enjoy. My mother had obtained a masters in education from Columbia University, Manhattan, New York. So we were not dumb and poor, just trusting souls. I have become a medical heretic and have trained my sons to question and research anything told by doctors and also pharmacists. Any of you remember Thalomide, a morning sickness pill? Yup, children were born missing limbs. I cannot remember the pill my mother used, but in 1974 the New York Times (newspaper) took a one page ad warning females born between 1940-1952 to be cheched for ovarian cancer. And yes, the Lily company as well as others manufacture drugs in Puerto Rico, very convenient, huh? I cringe for the women of today, now they have developed a pill which claims you'll never have a period again if you do not want to. BEWARE!!!
Posted by Dora Cruz
May 26, 2007, 12:05 AM
Postscript: I have fibrosistic disease in my breast, and have had three strokes, but Orthonovum will never admit the pill caused it. And when I could no longer take the pill, I had an IUD implanted while in New York City which perforated my uterus. So...beware my sisters.
Posted by Dora Cruz
May 26, 2007, 12:22 AM
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