June 23rd, in the Northern Hemisphere, is often a clement sort of day, weather-wise. But two landmark historical events also mark the date, and the stormy controversy surrounding them has yet to die down. Let’s take a few moments this morning to look back on the introduction of the contraceptive pill in America (June 23rd 1960), and the Brexit vote in Great Britain (June 23rd 2016) and reflect on where things may go from here.
The Pill
First off, what exactly is “the pill”? Also called birth control pills or oral contraceptives, they are hormone pills often containing an estrogen and a progestogen, or in some cases only a progestogen. They are designed to be taken once a day and may be used not only to prevent pregnancy, as their common names imply, but also to prevent and treat a whole host of other health issues including but far from limited to: general menstrual discomfort, heavy (“menorrhagia”) or painful (“dysmenorrhea”) menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome. It was first approved by the American FDA in 1957, but only for treating severe menstrual disorders and specifically not for use as a contraceptive. Perhaps suspiciously but definitely not surprisingly, complaints of and prescriptions for “severe menstrual disorders” shot up immediately afterwards. Finally, the FDA approved the pill for use as a contraceptive in 1960 and it went on sale on June 23rd.
How does the pill work to prevent pregnancy? As per the Planned Parenthood website: “The pill works by inhibiting ovulation and by thickening cervical mucus, which prevents sperm from entering the fallopian tubes where fertilization takes place.”
From the very beginning, in fact even before it was officially announced as an approved contraceptive, a mixture of condemnation and ambivalence has surrounded the pill, much as has been the case for birth control methods in general for centuries:
The church, however, had little to say about contraception for many centuries. For example, after the decline of the Roman Empire, the church did little to explicitly prohibit contraception, teach against it, or stop it, though people undoubtedly practiced it.
Most penitence manuals from the Middle Ages, which directed priests what types of sins to ask parishioners about, did not even mention contraception.
It was only in 1588 that Pope Sixtus V took the strongest conservative stance against contraception in Catholic history. With his papal bull “Effraenatam,” he ordered all church and civil penalties for homicide to be brought against those who practiced contraception.
However, both church and civil authorities refused to enforce his orders, and laypeople virtually ignored them. In fact, three years after Sixtus’s death, the next pope repealed most of the sanctions and told Christians to treat “Effraenatam” “as if it had never been issued.”
By the mid-17th century, some church leaders even admitted couples might have legitimate reasons to limit family size to better provide for the children they already had.
—”How the Catholic Church came to oppose birth control”
Likewise, in the early days of the contraceptive pill, the idea of snuffing out one of God’s creations before the first spark of electrical activity was by no means objectionable to all or even a majority of religious leaders at the (historically very recent) time:
The question was left for consideration by the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, held between 1963 to 1966. This commission by an overwhelming majority – a reported 80 percent – recommended the church expand its teaching to accept artificial contraception.
That was not at all unusual. The Catholic Church had changed its stance on many controversial issues over the centuries, such as slavery, usury and Galileo’s theory that the Earth revolves around the sun. Minority opinion, however, feared that to suggest the church had been wrong these last decades would be to admit the church had been lacking in direction by the Holy Spirit.
Paul VI eventually sided with this minority view and issued “Humanae Vitae,” prohibiting all forms of artificial birth control. His decision, many argue, was not about contraception per se but the preservation of church authority. An outcry ensued from both priests and laypeople.
—”How the Catholic Church came to oppose birth control”
In addition to religious considerations, there were also at the time some well-meaning medical concerns as to safety, but these were relatively few, and the consensus for ages now is that the pill is, for the vast majority of people, entirely safe. Therefore, while some may seek to couch their personal objections in apparently medical arguments, the polemic nowadays is entirely religious and moral, with many likely unaware that their religion’s birth control restrictions are far from ancient or set in stone.
Where do we go from here? In our own country, the religious right has been working hard for years, and sadly with measurable success, to limit people’s legal access to (female body-based) birth control. However, greater dissemination of medical knowledge and increasing levels of tolerance especially among certain age demographics, are highly encouraging signs for bodily autonomy in the long term.
In the meantime, all we can do is continue to raise our voices and exercise our votes in favor of what The Economist in May 2010 named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, and also enjoy the classic musical rebuttal to the Catholic Church’s anti-pill stance, courtesy of the incomparable Monty Python:
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Brexit
A few months prior to America’s own 2016 electoral upset, Great Britain shocked the world by voting to withdraw from the European Union, the 28-country political and economic partnership to which it had belonged since 1973. “Leavers” were motivated by much of the same financial, cultural, and racial discontent as Trump supporters, Russia was—as in America—heavily involved in promoting a particular outcome via misinformation and influence campaigns, and the final vote margins were similarly razor-thin.
Today, after two years, Prime Minister Theresa May has had to resign, and it’s still unclear if the United Kingdom will part ways with Europe on October 31st as scheduled, if Brexit will be further delayed, or cancelled, or ignored, or re-voted on . . . and even if a new vote were to somehow take place, as seems unlikely, it's unclear, again like in the States, whether the outcome would be different or any more to the liking of liberal-minded Brits anyway.
That Britain would take such a drastic and by all accounts misguided decision has rocked financial markets and many people’s sense of stability and faith in their fellow man at several points in the past two years. So what can we do, apart from crossing our fingers or wishing for a time machine? At the moment, not much other than wait and see. Hopefully, however, people in Great Britain will learn from this severe jolt the importance of voting, and voter participation and general civic awareness will be higher the next time around!
We can also, of course, feel a little better about the situation by laughing about it. So on that note, enjoy the Monty Python once more, this time in a slightly altered version of a famous bit from The Life Of Brian "What have the Romans ever done for us?"
Happy June the 23rd, everybody!