Senator Nelson's 'Pill Hearings:' Who was Present? Who Testified?
In the late 1960s, Senator Gaylord Nelson became interested in the relationship between the drug industry and the medical profession. He first led his subcommittee through hearings that consumed fourteen volumes worth of testimony, evidence and a vast amount of supplementary materials. [15] In the years before Nelson’s hearings, “the US Congress approved the Medicaid and Medicare amendments to the Social Security Act, which used federal tax dollars to provide health care for the poor and elderly.” [16]
Nelson became invested in the drug industry’s relationship with the medical profession as he saw it was his duty to protect the state and those who used Medicaid and Medicare [17] Nelson knew that the drug companies goal was to sell drugs and make money. Hence Nelson knew it was extremely difficult to know the safety of prescriptions as drug companies “tried to portray its products in the best possible light.” [18] At the start of his hearings Nelson stated that “these hearings are concerned with the important matter of the health and pocketbook of American citizens.” [19] As a result, Nelson’s main objective was to provide transparency between the drug industry and the medical field to protect naive patients from the dangers of the pharmaceutical companies.
In 1969 shortly after publishment, Senator Nelson read Barbara Seaman’s book “The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill.” Already concerned about the hazards of the drug companies, Nelson found similarities in Seaman’s arguments that further confirmed his concerns. Over the course of 1969 Nelson and Seaman had various correspondences and eventually on “December 22, 1969 Nelson released a statement to the press announcing his intention to hold public hearings on the oral contraceptives.” [20]
On the First day of the hearings Nelson stated his mission “…to present for the general public’s benefit the best and most objective information available about these drugs. First, whether they are dangerous for the human body, and second, whether patients taking them have sufficient information about the possible dangers in order to make an intelligent judgement whether they wish to assume the risks.” [21]
To evaluate the health risks of the birth control pill Nelson and his staff assembled a group of doctors and scientists to testify on the drug’s chemical component and how it could cause adverse effects to the human body. Doctors and Scientists that were both for and opposed of oral contraceptives testified. Many of those who testified were those mentioned and interviewed in Seaman’s book. However, what was missing was the testimony of those who took the pill. No women testified other than two female physicians. Barbara Seaman also did not testify although she was present during the hearings. This caused an outcry from feminists groups and led to more radical feminist groups such as the D.C. Women’s Liberation group to cause disruptions and protests during the hearings. The fact that their were no women witnesses also caused a frenzy in the media.
Nelson’s “pill hearings” marked the “entry of the federal government into the medical and public controversy over the safety of the pill.” [22] Not only did the hearings create a social consciousness surrounding the safety of prescriptions and drugs prescribed by physicians, it also encouraged the FDA to create a more severe regulatory process across drug manufactures. In addition, the hearing brought up the issue that lies between the patient-doctor relationship. Doctors need to be more transparent to their patients surrounding all effects whether good or bad so that they can make the best decision for their own bodies. As a result, the hearings created a new wave of feminism—health feminism. Through health feminism, women of all races, classes, and cultures began to demand for equal treatment in sectors of authority. Hence fields such as the medical and legal profession were attacked for being male-dominated and for dismissing women’s opinion because of gender stereotypes. Women now started to combat this idea by becoming more vocal and active in occupations that held power.