The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution (53 page)

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

201
did not bother him
: Laura Pincus Bernard, interview conducted by the author, July 2013.
201
“hold it against her”
: David Tyler to Gregory Pincus, July 8, 1955, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
202
“it will not succeed”
: David Tyler to Gregory Pincus, June 14, 1955, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
203
which she took for insomnia
: Jean H. Baker,
Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2011), p. 285.
203
“now I do not need anything”
: Margaret Sanger to Juliet Barrett Rublee, February 13, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
203
“veins of sadness”
: Ellen Chesler,
Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 415.
204
638,000 legal abortions
: “Mrs. Sanger’s Visit Excites Japanese,”
New York Times
, November 10, 1952.
204
demand for abortions would decline
: “Foreword,”
Fifth International Conference on Planned Parenthood, Report of the Proceedings
(Tokyo), October 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
204
“more scientific” titles
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, April 13, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
204
“be progesterone guinea pigs”
: Ibid.
204
“evidently a very necessary help to him”
: Ibid.
205
“It looks pretty good”
: Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 170.
206
“a fair drop off”
: Gregory Pincus to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
206
between San Juan and Shrewsbury
: Gregory Pincus to Celso Garcia, June 23, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
206
“very little [data] worth reporting”
: Gregory Pincus to David Tyler, June 22, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
207
charged her purchases to McCormick
: Assorted receipts, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
207
furniture from an uncle in Montreal
: Assorted receipts, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
208
his upcoming travels
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Bruce Crawford, July 12, 1955, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
208
stop work on the pill
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, June 29, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
208
“You talk to young college women”
: “Margaret Sanger Thinks Crusading Spark Dampened,”
Oxnard Press Courier
, May 10, 1955.
208
conditions of women in prison
: Ibid.
209
attended the conference in Japan
: Beryl Suitters,
Be Brave and Angry: Chronicles of the International Planned Parenthood Federation
(London: International Planned Parenthood Federation, 1973), p. 132.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

210
two thousand U.S. civilians
: National World War II Museum, http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/ww2-by-the-numbers/world-wide-deaths.html (accessed February 18, 2014).
211
“last immodest exercise”
: John Dower,
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999), p. 23.
211
courtesans, prostitutes, military pawns
: Michael Hoffman, “Revolution Was in the Air During Japan’s Taisho Era,”
Japan Times
, July 29, 2012, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/07/29/general/revolution-was-in-the-air-during-japans-taisho-era-but-soon-evaporated-into-the-status-quo/#.UwdeDpGuPk4 (accessed February 20, 2014).
211
thirteen-hour shifts
: Sanger Diary, 1922, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
212
“vivid and long-enduring impression”
: Ellen Chesler,
Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 365.
212
illegal abortion-inducing medicine
: Carolyn Eberts, “The Sanger Brand: The Relationship of Margaret Sanger and the Pre-War Japanese Birth Control Movement,” Master’s Thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2010.
212
“no priests denouncing me”
: Margaret Sanger,
My Fight for Birth Control
(New York: Farrar & Rinehart Incorporated, 1931), p. 254.
213
abortion rates in the country rose sharply
: Sheila Matsumoto, “Women in Factories” in
Women in Changing Japan
, ed. Joyce Lebra, Joy Paulson, and Elizabeth Powers (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1970), p. 56.
213
would jump from 6,000
: Yoshio Koya,
Pioneering in Family Planning
(Tokyo: Japan Medical Publishers, 1963), p. 63.
214
“will eliminate contraceptive devices”
: “Birth-control Pill Reported by Expert,”
Pasadena Independent
, October 19, 1955.
214
“the miracle tablet maybe”
: “Foreword,”
Fifth International Conference on Planned Parenthood, Report of the Proceedings
(Tokyo), October 1955, SSC.
214
he complained of stomach trouble
: Laura Pincus Bernard’s scrapbook, Pincus family collection.
215
she felt as if she were at home
: Headline unavailable,
Mainichi Shimbun
, October 24, 1955.
215
“talk about in the previous conferences”
: Headline unavailable,
Asahi Shimbun
, October 24, 1955.
216
“no such substance is yet known”
: Paul Vaughan,
The Pill on Trial
(New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1970), pp. 32–33.
216
time to prove it really worked
: Transcript of Judy McCann interview conducted by Leon Speroff, May 2007.
216
were a “necessary evil”
: Vaughan,
The Pill on Trial
, p. 42.
216
“Unless and until we know more”
: Ibid., p. 33.
217
“He was the most supremely confident”
: Laura Pincus Bernard, e-mail to the author, September 1, 2013.
217
“We cannot on the basis of our observations”
: Vaughan,
The Pill on Trial
, p. 33.
218
“as close as we should like”
: Ibid., p. 34.
218
“We need better evidence”
: Ibid.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

219
“the magic and mystery of our time”
: Gregory Pincus to Hermann Joseph Muller, Hermann Joseph Muller Papers, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
220
voting in roughly equal numbers
: “Women’s Vote: The Bigger Half?”
New York Times Magazine
, October 21, 1956.
221
“Just Darn Mad”
: “Letters to Geraldine,”
Oakland Tribune
, November 3, 1955.
221
“poor choice as a reward”
: Ibid.
221
“Someone ought to inform this young lady”
: “Letters to Geraldine,”
Oakland Tribune
, December 8, 1955.
221
“Can anyone say I’m a sinner”
: Ibid.
222
“I’d’ve fucked anything”
: David Dalton,
Piece of My Heart: The Life, Times and Legend of Janis Joplin
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), p. 147.
222
“rat race or domesticity”
: Marge Piercy, “Through the Cracks: Growing Up in the Fifties,” in
Particolored Blocks for a Quilt
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982), pp. 155–56.
222
“good and hard”
: Grace Metalious,
Peyton Place
(New York: Julian Messner, 1956), p. 124.
223
one in twenty-nine Americans
: Ibid., p. viii.
223
“something going on out there”
: Ibid., p. ix.
223
“declared out-of-bounds”
: Ibid., p. xiv.
224
to promote sex education
: Linda Gordon,
The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America
(Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 2007), p. 255.
224
“who want to see a change”
: “The Attitude of the Roman Catholic Church,” Internal Memo, International Planned Parenthood Federation, February 28, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
225
“law which is natural and divine”
: John T. Noonan,
Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), p. 467.
226
average was about 20 percent higher
: Leslie Woodcock Tentler,
Catholics and Contraception: An American History
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004), p. 133.
226
“a comfortable future on earth”
: Ibid., p. 132.
226
decided not to publish the results
: Ibid., p. 200.
226
sacraments of confession and communion
: Ibid., p. 135.
226
“despite frantic and distressing efforts”
: Anonymous letter to the editor,
Liguorian
48, no. 10 (1960), p. 39.
227
“I was taught by the Church”
: Loretta McLaughlin, interview conducted by the author, October 2011
.
227
“high-handedness”
: Ibid.
227
to find out if they worked
: Katharine Dexter McCormick, “Notes on Conversation with John Rock,” January 9, 1956, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
228
“ ‘don’t you sell
my
church short’ ”
: Loretta McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and the Church
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), p. 142.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

229
He needed a new approach
: Katharine Dexter McCormick, “Notes on Conversation with Dr. Pincus,” March 5, 1956, Armond Fields Collection, USC.
230
“I was kind of scared”
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated.
230
so charming and self-assured
: Ibid.
230
“none of the Church’s damn business”
: Ibid.
231
stable over months of work
: Edris Rice-Wray to Gregory Pincus, April 17, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
231
manage their family’s size
: Edris Rice-Wray, “Field Study with Enovid as a Contraceptive Agent,”
Proceedings of a Symposium on 19-Nor Progestational Steroids
, 79, Searle Research Laboratories, January 23, 1957.
231
“very easy to talk to mothers”
: Edris Rice-Wray, Speech to the Royal Swedish Endocrine Society, March 9, 1962, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
232
religion prohibited her from enrolling
: Ibid.
232
“crazy to get the pill”
: Edris Rice-Wray to Gregory Pincus, April 17, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
233
“We are led to suspect”
: Loretta McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and the Church
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), p. 122.
233
he recalled years later
: Ibid., p. 123.
234
“my results were all wrong”
: “Recent Progress in Hormone Research,”
Proceedings of the Laurentian Hormone Conference
, Vol. 13 (New York: Academic Press Inc., 1957), p. 340.
234
“superior forms of entertainment”
: McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and the Church
, p. 45.
234
plunged nude into the swimming pool
: Ibid.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

235
“things began to happen”
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, December 12, 1956, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
235
“the conspiracy of silence is broken”
: Ibid.
236
daiquiris in bed in the morning
: Madeline Gray,
Margaret Sanger: A
Biography of the Champion of Birth Control
(New York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1979), p. 429.
236
put her to bed
: Ibid., p. 428.
236
“woman’s biological freedom and development”
: Margaret Sanger to Dr. Kenneth Rose, August 20, 1956, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
236
“that inane one Planned Parenthood”
: Ibid.
237
it was going to be big
: Geoff Dutton, interview conducted by the author, October 2011.
237
“until I hear from you”
: Peggy Blake to Gregory Pincus, July 28, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
237
“pretty much persuades me”
: Gregory Pincus to Peggy Blake, August 2, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
238
“I was ready to murder”
: Peggy Blake to Gregory Pincus, August 4, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
238
“lose money on the deal”
: Ibid.
238
“start again” on a new bottle
: Edris Rice-Wray, “Field Study with Enovid as a Contraceptive Agent,”
Proceedings of a Symposium on 19-Nor Progestational Steroids
, 79, Searle Research Laboratories, January 23, 1957.
238
took all the pills at once
: Laura Pincus Bernard, interview conducted by the author, July 2013.
239
“A woman dressed as a nurse”
: Edris Rice-Wray’s translation of article from
El Imparcial
, April 21, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
239
experiencing unpleasant side effects
: Iris Rodriguez to Gregory Pincus, May 8, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
239
twenty of the original one hundred
: Gregory Pincus to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 11, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
239
“
‘
they are afraid of you
’
”
: Edris Rice-Wray to Gregory Pincus, December 20, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
240
she would have to drop it
: Ibid.
240
“We will only say”
: Iris Rodriguez to Gregory Pincus, May 8, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
240
how they could get it
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, SSC.
240
“calling on me when I make the visits”
: Ibid.
240
“a major convincing influence for others”
: Celso-Ramón Garcia, M.D., “The Early History of Oral Contraceptives,” draft of paper to be presented at the John Rock Commemorative Symposium, October 21, 1980, CLM.
241
side effects were becoming too much
: Gregory Pincus to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 11, 1956, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
241
seventeen days after delivering
: Edris Rice-Wray, “Field Study with Enovid as a Contraceptive Agent.”

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