The Pill Hearings

Is the birth control pill safe?

Inspired in large part by journalist Barbara Seaman’s controversial exposé The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill (1969), in January 1970 Senator Gaylord Nelson convened a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate to ask his assembled scientific experts that very question.

And exactly how safe? Were women adequately informed about any potential risks when deciding to start taking the drug? Testimonies sought to settle the science of side effects and the appropriateness of their disclosure.

The hearings did not go quite as planned, however, attracting the ire of both feminist protesters and the family planning community. They had long-lasting side effects of their own, on the practice of medicine and the regulation of pharmaceuticals that are still with us today.

My book takes a fresh look at these hearings, the media frenzy that accompanied them, and the diverse cast of characters with stakes in this scientific and political debate.

The Pill Hearings is under contract with Rutgers University Press and will appear in the Critical Issues in Health and Medicine series.

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a biography?

Yes and no. It is true that my dissertation was a biography, focusing on the career of Barbara Seaman to make broader points about the history of women’s health, consumer rights, and the role of science writing in changing cultural attitudes towards science and medicine. If you’re looking for Barbara Seaman, I published three biographically-oriented journal articles from my dissertation.