Legacies
What started as an ingenious invention that liberated women’s lives, the birth control pill became known as the monster that lurked in your medicine cabinet. Through feminist activists such as Barbara Seaman, American women became informed about the pill’s dirty secret. Media coverage of oral contraceptives after Seaman’s The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill exposed what was missing in the medical field— informed consent. Now all patients demanded information about their healthcare from medications to procedures so they could make an informed decision regarding their own bodies. As a result of Barbara Seaman, Senator Gaylord Nelson was able to attack pharmaceutical companies, strengthening the argument of the lack of transparency between doctors and patients and doctor and drug companies relationships. Through the hearings, a wider awakening rose, encouraging every woman and man to question their relationship with their physicians and how trustworthy the medical industry was.
So what actually came out of the pill hearing? “the pill’s legacy to women is the belief in and the right to simple, safe, and reliable contraception.” [32] But thats not all the hearings accomplished. A number of advances in women’s reproductive health and rights occurred in the following years and would have long-lasting effects on women’s rights in health care to this day. Immediately “after the hearings, the FDA ordered manufactures to include in every packet of the pills an information sheet detailing the side effects and health risks.” [33]
In addition, shortly after the hearings The National Women’s Health Network (NWHN) was formed by feminist activists Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowen, Physllis Chesler, and Mary Howell. [34] The NWHN was created to “monitor Federal health agencies and to ensure that the voice of the women’s health movement would be heard on Capital Hill.” [35] By the mid-late 1970s the NWHN “had become highly visible, effective voice for women at some of the tables where health policy decision-making took place.” [36]
The National Women’s Health Network is still around today and provides women around the united states information regarding their reproductive health. Since the 1970s the NWHN’s newsletters and other publications have been “vital sources of information for women across the country about the dangers of a variety of pharmaceutical drugs and medical procedures and a variety of health research and policy issues.” [37]
To find out more about the NWHN go to https://www.nwhn.org/