VOA标准英语2010年-Birth Control Pill Sparked Contracepti

50 years after introduction of the Pill, reproductive rights still at stake for women worldwide

Rosanne Skirble | Washington, DC 12 May 2010
 

The Pill was approved 50 years ago and, today, 12 million American women take the oral contraceptive.

In May 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the world's first birth control pill. Today, 12 million American women take the Pill, making it the leading contraceptive in the United States, one that has reshaped America's cultural landscape.

In her 1975 hit single, country star Loretta Lynn sings a victory anthem¹ for the Pill:

You wined me and dine me

When I was your girl

Promised if I'd be your wife

You'd show me the world

But all I've seen of this old world

Is a bed and a doctor bill

I'm tearin' down your brooder house

'Cause now I've got the pill.

When the Pill hit the market in 1960, 30 states had laws restricting the advertising² and sale of contraceptives. Two states banned them outright³. Those laws were rendered invalid⁴ for married women by a 1965 Supreme⁵ Court decision and the ruling was expanded in 1972 to cover all women.

In the post-World War II baby boom era, the impetus⁶ for promoting an oral contraceptive for women did not come from drug companies or the government. University of Minnesota historian Elaine Tyler May says it came from the vision of two women: Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick.

"Sanger had the political savvy⁷, experience and connections while Katharine McCormick had the money," she says.

Margaret Sanger was an early advocate of oral contraceptives for women.

High hopes

Sanger and McCormick felt the female contraceptive could emancipate⁸ women.

May says the team they worked with to make that happen attached other far-reaching utopian dreams to the project. The most idealistic hopes attached to the Pill were that it would solve the problem of overpopulation, and poverty; that domestically, it would create happy families because married couples could enjoy sex without fears of unwanted pregnancy⁹; that single women wouldn't have babies anymore because they could prevent it until they were married.

It gradually became clear that the Pill was not a panacea¹⁰ for all those societal ills. It did not stem overpopulation, cut poverty, lower the divorce rate or put an end to unwanted pregnancies¹¹. Nor did the Pill spark the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Instead, as May writes in her new book, "America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril¹² and Liberation," women liberated¹³ themselves as the result of the feminist¹⁴ movement.

They used the Pill as an important tool to gain control over their lives. Women made demands on their doctors, challenged pharmaceutical¹⁵ companies to make the pills safer and went against the mores¹⁶ of the Catholic Church which did not approve the Pill.

May adds that today's Pill has little in common with the one on the market in 1960. "The pill 50 years ago was a very high dose pill, 10 milligrams of hormones," she says. "It is a fraction of that now. It's a much safer pill and a lot of the difficulties have been worked out in terms of safety and side effects, not all of them, but there are still problems with the Pill. It is not a perfect contraceptive."

Fifty years after gaining a powerful tool to control their own bodies, women are still fighting to use that tool as they see fit.

Barriers remain

Women still face barriers to full reproductive rights.

While more contraceptive options and devices are available today, many women are denied access to them. Some states have so-called conscience clauses written into laws, allowing doctors and pharmacists to refuse to provide reproductive health products and services because of their personal beliefs.

"They can just say they won't do it," says May. "Abstinence-only sex education denies young women opportunity to have the knowledge they need to make their own informed decisions."

May observes that, 50 years after women gained a powerful tool to control their own bodies, they are still fighting to use that tool as they see fit. She suggests that could help explain why the United States has a higher teen pregnancy rate than any other country in the industrialized world. And this year, for the first time since 1991, that rate is on the rise.
 

1 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

2 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

3 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

4 invalid   

n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的

参考例句：

• He will visit an invalid.他将要去看望一个病人。
• A passport that is out of date is invalid.护照过期是无效的。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 impetus   

n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力

参考例句：

• This is the primary impetus behind the economic recovery.这是促使经济复苏的主要动力。
• Her speech gave an impetus to my ideas.她的讲话激发了我的思绪。

7 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

8 emancipate   

v.解放，解除

参考例句：

• This new machine will emancipate us from the hard work.这部新机器将把我们从繁重劳动中解放出来。
• To emancipate all mankind,we will balk at no sacrifice,even that of our lives.为了全人类的解放,即使牺牲生命也在所不惜。

9 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

10 panacea   

n.万灵药；治百病的灵药

参考例句：

• Western aid may help but will not be a panacea. 西方援助可能会有所帮助，但并非灵丹妙药。
• There's no single panacea for the country's economic ills. 国家经济弊病百出,并无万灵药可以医治。

11 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

12 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

13 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。

14 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

15 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

16 mores   

n.风俗，习惯，民德，道德观念

参考例句：

• The mores of that village are hard to believe.那村子的习俗让人难以置信。
• We advocate a harmonious society where corruption is swept away,and social mores are cleared.我们提倡弊绝风清，建设一个和谐社会。