The Politics of Steroid Contraceptives: The FDA's Impact on Birth Control in the United States

Abstract

Steroid contraceptives were created during a period of societal support of pharmaceutical research and development and a climate of eugenics. The eugenics movement, which sought a solution to expanding poor and uneducated populations, overlapped with an emerging feminist goal of providing women with alternatives to lives based upon motherhood. Since the first introduction of steroid contraception in the form of the Pill, development of contraception and FDA involvement therein has followed the political tides, which, coupled with an increasingly litigious society, has chilled contraceptives research and development. Further dampening may also be attributed to the linkage between contraceptives and abortion in the law and in the public's perception. In order to reverse the trend of research withdrawal, action will be necessary on several fronts: tort reform by means of an FDA defense is necessary as well as required insurance coverage of steroid contraceptives and increased public funding.