The Pill (1999)

Abstract

The birth control pill provided women with some control over their reproduction and offered adults more liberty in sexual interaction. This documentary explores the background behind the release of the pill without adequate safety testing and the resulting serious side effects, including death, experienced by some users of the early high-dose pill. Using archival footage and interviews, this documentary "chronicles little known chapters in the history of the oral contraceptive that changed the world, examines how far the pharmaceutical industry was willing to risk women's health to launch its magic bullet." (quote from Women Make Movies site) Gloria Steinem and Barbara Seaman, journalist and author of The Doctor's Case Against the Pill (1969), are interviewed, as are women from Puerto Rico, who, unknowingly, were test subjects for the early pill. Additional footage shows the efforts of women's health activists who questioned the high-dose pill's safety and scientists who helped to develop the pill. "When the U.S. government convened hearings to review the drug's safety, the new women's health movement claimed its first major victory - patient package inserts warning about the drug's side effects." (quote from the National Film Board of Canada site). The program was made in Canada.