Happy Birthday to The Pill!

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granting approval to the birth control pill, a decision which revolutionized women's reproductive health.  The domino effect of the availability of reliable birth control in this country was wide-ranging.  Single women could embrace their sexuality without fear of pregnancy and married couples could plan if and when they wanted to start a family.  How many marriages were strengthened or saved, and how many bad marriages prevented in the first place, we will never know.  But beyond the biological effect of The Pill, in a time where women could be fired from their jobs simply for getting pregnant, it meant that women could think long term about college, post-graduate studies, career plans, travel, and anything else that they wished to achieve or do in their lives.  In this way, the ability to choose when and if to have children resulted in more women going to college and becoming doctors, lawyers and scientists, more women going further in the field of business, more women being free to dedicate their early career years to more challenging work or service opportunities... all of which undoubtedly improved the standard of living of their families as well.  Plus, when those women did decide to have families, they were much more likely to be in stable marriages and less likely to be living in poverty.

One outspoken woman who heartily embraced The Pill was the legendary singer Loretta Lynn.  Married at 14 years old and a mom of four by the age of 17, Loretta's 1974 song "The Pill" was the first to discuss the subject, and it did so from a very personal perspective of a woman tired of being pregnant every year.  Though it was banned at my radio stations, Loretta was later told by doctors working in rural areas that it had done more to increase awareness of the pill's availability than anything else - something no doubt Loretta had in mind when writing a song that would speak to her own background.  Here now is Loretta Lynn with "The Pill" -