cover image The Pill: A Biography of the Drug That Changed the World

The Pill: A Biography of the Drug That Changed the World

Bernard Asbell. Random House (NY), $25 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-41100-0

Asbell's riveting account of the development of the oral contraceptive pill and its liberating impact for millions of women is a remarkable tale of scientific discovery, fortuitous progress, dogged persistence and moral dilemmas over reproductive choices. In 1950, birth-control crusader Margaret Sanger, then 71, and feminist philanthropist Katharine McCormick, 75, commissioned ex-Harvard biologist Gregory Pincus to develop an oral contraceptive. Pincus's collaboration with Harvard gynecologist John Rock led to FDA approval of ``the Pill'' in 1961, a feat made possible by the work of at least two predecessors--reclusive chemist Russell Marker, who synthesized progesterone in Mexico from locally grown plants in 1949, and Carl Djerassi, a refugee chemist from Nazi-occupied Vienna. Asbell (The Senate Nobody Knows) reveals the medical profession's and the big pharmaceutical companies' initial hostility to the pill's development; they were skeptical of its efficacy or marketability and skittish about potential lawsuits. He also explores the schism within the Vatican and among Roman Catholics over the pill, and assesses recent developments such as the Norplant contraceptive implant, which is inserted under a woman's arm; the search for a Pill for males; and the French abortion-inducing drug RU 486, used as a ``morning-after'' contraceptive. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (June)